City to Check on Business Firms’ Compliance with Parking, STP Requirements
April 11, 2015
BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio Domogan on Monday directed the city buildings and architecture office (CBAO) to check if the owners of commercial buildings at the central business district complied with the parking requirement after the lapse of the grace period given to them last February.
The mayor said those who did not comply will be penalized by having their building and occupancy permits revoked.
“We conducted a dialogue with them and gave them ample time to comply. At least they cannot say we are being unreasonable if we impose the penalty to the violators,” the mayor told departments heads.
The mayor with Councilor Elaine Sembrano in September last year held a dialogue with the building owners where the latter agreed to provide ample parking spaces to comply with their building permit requirement.
City buildings and architecture officer-in-charge Johnny Degay then said that in the course of their inspections of the edifices, it was discovered that many establishments with approved parking spaces in their building permits have altered the plans and instead rented out the spaces intended for parking.
The mayor said this constitutes violation of Presidential Decree 96 or the National Building Code and city ordinances and as such the city can revoke the building and occupancy permits and close the establishments.
The mayor decided to give them a grace period of until February this year to rectify their violations either by restoring their parking areas or by designating a parking area outside their buildings but within the property’s 200-meter radius.
As this developed, the mayor also asked the CBAO to ensure that high rise buildings required to provide their own sewer treatment facilities are complying with the requirement.
The mayor asked the CBAO to submit a summary of the buildings which were required to install their own sewer treatment plants (STPs) and to monitor if these facilities are indeed functioning.
City planning and development officer Evelyn Cayat said the city started imposing the STP requirement in the issuance of building and occupancy permits for high rise structures two years ago.
This was among the steps taken by the city government to address the saturated condition of the city’s own STP at Sanitary Camp.
The STP built in 1986 has now been operating beyond its rated capacity of 8,600-cubic meter since 2011./A Refuerzo
