MODULE 2: NATURE, PURPOSE, AND PROCESS
OF LAND USE PLANNING
PART 1. LAND USE PLANNING PRINCIPLES
Reference 1: Ecologically Based Municipal Land
Use Planning
Ecology-based Municipal Land Use Planning
 Population growth, along with the
accompanying land use needs, should
be directed to areas that are
intrinsically best suited for it
 It should not sacrifice the ecological
infrastructure that assures our
sustainability and survivability
 It can be accommodated within the
existing land use planning tools and
practices already in place, with some
modifications
Reference 2: Land Use Planning Principles
General Land Use
 Separate incompatible uses, such as
industrial from residential, by locating
them in different parts of the
community or buffering them from each
other.
 Consider potential “nuisances,” such as
noises, light, smell, high volume
roadways and industrial uses.
 Accommodate daily services in a central
location or business district.
 Locate institutional uses in areas to
serve as focal points for the community
and, where appropriate, support
downtown or special district activities.
 Continue developing in areas where
existing development is already located
or where public services already exist
rather than developing new areas.
Agricultural, Natural, and Cultural Resources
 Minimize development of the best
agricultural lands.
 Discourage growth in natural areas like
wetlands, steep slopes, floodplains, and
stream corridors.
 Consider historic resources and
archeological sites.
 Configure development relative to
topographical constraints (e.g.,
relatively flat areas are more suitable
for commercial/industrial type uses
whereas rolling topography may be
appropriate for some housing)
 Capitalize on, but do not harm natural
amenities (like rivers, forested or
wooded areas, wetlands, etc.)
 Consider sustainability of future water
supply and impacts of solid and liquid
waste treatment and disposal.
 Provide for existing water supply to be
protected (wellhead protection).
 Consider natural hazards and water
related hazards
Housing and Neighborhood Development
 Provide enough areas for housing to
meet future growth expectations.
 In cities and villages and urban towns,
incorporate a mix of housing types,
densities, and costs (single-family,
multi-family, apartments, senior and
affordable housing).
  Distribute affordable housing
throughout the community
 Plan for multi-family developments in
parts of a city or village where streets
and sidewalks can handle the increased
amount of traffic generated by the
project, where there are adequate
parks, and where the utility system and
schools have sufficient capacity.
 Within cities and villages and urban
towns, design new neighborhoods that
are located within walking distance of
civic spaces, churches, commercial uses
and jobs.
 Encourage small-scale retail and
services to locate close to residential
neighborhoods.
Reference 3: Land Use Planning Principles
Action Checklist
 Separate and buffer mainly residential
neighborhoods and schools from large-
scale commercial and industrial areas.
 Preserve distinctive and attractive
entryways into the community. (i.e.,
how does the community wish to
present itself to visitors exiting the
interstate - big box stores, strip
development, etc.)
Utilities and Community Facilities
 Maximize use of existing utility systems
and facilities before extending systems.
 Avoid urban development in areas that
cannot be easily or economically served
with municipal utilities.
Economic Development
 Particularly in cities and villages,
maintain a sufficient supply of
developable land for industrial and
commercial land uses.
 Focus planned expansion of larger
commercial development in discrete
areas on major roads.
 Discourage continuous strip
development along long stretches of
roads.
 Consider the impact of future
commercial areas on the economic
viability of existing commercial areas
like downtowns.
 Encourage commercial “infill”
development in areas where adequate
services are already in place.
 Comprehensive land use planning is an
instrument for sustainable land
management, concurrently advancing
sustainable development; it creates the
preconditions required to achieve a
type of land use that is environmentally
sustainable, socially just and desirable,
as well as economically sound.
 Land use planning is centered around a
participatory definition of future land
uses; it is, therefore, a useful approach
whenever natural resources and
biodiversity are to be protected and
rehabilitated, and unexplored land use
potential has to be identified and
evaluated.
 Land-use and spatial planning can: a)
reconcile land use with environmental
concerns and resolve potential conflicts
between sectoral interests and
potential uses; b) increase land tenure
security and clarify customary land
tenure of communal lands.
  Policy responses to coordinate human
activities with environmental
conservation - alongside suitable
financial, legal and technical support -
are needed to guide land use planning
to support sustainable land
management, and to help resolve
conflicting land use demands.
 Land use planning should be
approached from both land cover and
land functionality perspectives, as the
latter is a nexus to other transversal
land issues.
 The integration of cross-sectoral
policies (e.g., land use, energy and
water management) into a single
planning instrument at the regional
level, based on an understanding of
territorial dynamics, can bolster
sustainable land management.
 Planning at the regional scale enables
the cumulative impacts of future
development on the natural capital of a
region to be accounted for, and the
sharing of responsibility for protection
and management across a wider
number of stakeholders.
Types of Land Use Planning
1. Land Use Planning
 The systematic assessment of
land and water potential,
alternatives for land use and
economic and social conditions,
in order to select and adopt the
best land use options. Its
purpose is to select and put into
practice those land uses that
will best meet the needs of the
people while safeguarding
resources for the future.
2. Spatial Land Use Planning
 gives geographical expression
to the economic, social,
cultural, and ecological policies
of society
 an interdisciplinary and
comprehensive approach
directed towards balanced
regional development, and the
physical organization of space,
according to an overall strategy.
3. Integrated Land Use Planning
 Assesses and assigns the use of
resources, taking into account
different uses, and demands
from different users, including
all agricultural sectors -
pastoral, crop and forests - as
well as industry and other
interested parties.
4. Participatory Land Use Planning
 People-centered, bottom-up
approach recognizing
differences that exist from place
to place, with respect to socio-
cultural, economic,
technological and
environmental conditions.
5. Village Land Use Planning
 A participatory catchment
approach; it associates groups
 and communities with a resources, considering land use
traditionally recognized land potential and land degradation
area, aiding these communities trends.
in building skills and developing
Reference 4: Land Use Planning Issues
local institutions for the
implementation of sustainable  Different people or groups want different
management plans. things from these resources.
 Deciding on the proper use of land
6. Rural Territorial Land Planning depends on the careful assessment of
 A politico-administrative and human needs and desires
technical process aimed at
organizing, planning and Legal and Economic Implications of Land as a
managing the use and Property
occupation of the territory,  Property consists of the rights society
contingent to its biophysical, gives an individual with respect to an
cultural, socio-economic, socio- object or physical entity.
political and institutional  Ownership of commodities has implied
characteristics. absolute rights concerning their use or
disposition. Thus, individuals tend to
7. Regional Land Use Planning regard land use as a matter of personal
 A process of territorial choice.
development designed to
facilitate the elaboration of a Implications of Rural-Urban Relations
general spatial concept and
 Rural land is being urbanized at rates
land use priorities,
from five to ten times faster than
determination of environment
population growth.
and monument protection
 Urban residents also look to the rural
conditions, formation of a
land for recreational opportunities and
system of residential,
for second homes.
productive and infrastructural
 Land use decisions should be based on
areas, regulation of
both rural and urban needs. Whatever
employment of the population,
policies this generation adopts should
while reserving the territories
take into account both present and
requisite for the activity
future demands, as they can be
expansion of private and legal
identified, for both rural and urban land
entities.
resources.

8. Ecological Land Use Planning Technology and the Land

 An environmental policy
 Modern techniques for raising livestock
instrument to regulate land use
and poultry in concentrated operations
and productive activities, to
raise the problem of handling animal
protect the environment,
wastes, and this problem in turn has a
promote the conservation and
direct bearing on the location of these
sustainable use of natural
industries.
  Flood control and drainage projects  Although a greater proportion of the
have mixed impacts on use of land. The population lives in concentrated urban
construction of reservoirs reduces the settlements, the latest census shows
land surface area. Such reservoirs may continued growth in more dispersed
have either a beneficial or an adverse communities outside the urbanized
effect on fish, wildlife, recreation, and areas.
stream bank erosion.
Reference 5: Land Issues in Poverty Reduction
 Unlimited surface mining has disturbed
Strategies and the Development Agenda:
about two million acres of land,
Philippines
resulting in pollution through acid mine
drainage into streams and in scars on Unclear and Inconsistent Land Policies
the land's surface.
 Forestlands have been defined as lands
Land for Food and Fiber with slope higher than 18 degrees.
However, forestlands may be
 Studies of the long-range effects of
reclassified into agricultural uses if such
pesticides and fertilizers have led to
lands are deemed more valuable for
demands for restriction of their use.
agricultural use
Should such restrictions result in
 There is a need to establish whether
decreased production, more land will
some forestlands or lands with slope
be needed to produce the same
higher than 18 degrees are actually
amount of food.
devoted to forest or agricultural use.
 Planning and control of land use can
 Protected areas are characterized as
guide the spatial distribution of
common property, that is, they are
population and economic activities,
owned by the State but private parties
public development investments, and
or groups through arrangements such
the preservation of land for agricultural
as leasehold can enjoy usufruct rights.
and timber production to meet both
 For instance, with regards to mineral
national and international needs.
lands, the Philippine Constitution under
Intergovernmental Relations the principle of Jura Regalia provides
that all natural resources particularly
 The growing concern for long-range
minerals are owned by the State. On
conservation of natural resources on
the other hand, under the Indigenous
the part of both federal and state
People’s Rights Act ancestral domains
government has interacted with the
include mineral lands and thus, the
investment of public funds to create
indigenous peoples or cultural
pressure for comprehensive
communities have claims of ownership
intergovernmental land use planning.
over those lands.
 Presently a primary need is to develop a
 Without a clear and consistent land use
workable interaction between levels of
policy, the government finds itself in a
government so that coordinated land
policy bind: supporting sectors that
use decisions are possible
would favor agricultural use over urban
National Development and Population use at one time and on other occasions,
Distribution favoring those sectors that demand
 land for housing, business and other
nonagricultural uses.
Inefficient Land Administration Infrastructure
 Information about land ownership,
location, boundaries, actual land uses
and land values cannot be provided
systematically in many local
governments.
 There are 19 agencies involved in land
administration but their operations are
not coordinated and information
integration is poor.
 There is considerable overlapping and
fragmentation of institutional
responsibilities among land agencies,
e.g., the Land Registration Authority
under the Department of Justice and
the Bureau of Land Management under
the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources.
 Major land administration laws are
outdated and some are not in accord
with recent land use legislation.
 Existing land records management is
inefficient. There are limited inventories
of land records. A large proportion of
records have been missing due to
destruction from war, theft, and fire
and water damage.
 Cadastral information is inadequate.
There is no complete set of cadastral
maps that show titled and untitled
properties and the boundaries of
private, public and forest land parcels.
 Information in the land registry is not
easily accessible. Title records in the
Registry of Deeds, which is the ultimate
repository of land titles in the country,
cannot be matched with parcel or
cadastral map number.
 There is an absence of a national
standard and method for real property
valuation. Several systems and
methodologies are applied in the
valuation of real properties. Thus,
property valuation varies depending on
the purpose for which land is being
assessed.
Highly Politicized Property Tax System
 Although the property tax system is
well designed, land taxation is not used
effectively to generate revenue or to
encourage active land markets.
 The efficient allocation of lands to their
best use has been constrained by
relatively low tax burdens. This practice
has encouraged land speculation and
undermined the generation of
significant revenues for land ownership
----discontinued
Reference: Land Use Policy Impacts on Human
Development in the Philippines
 A land use policy or a land use plan
defines the ways by which land
(including its water resources) should
be used. It directly affects the value of
land which is related to its productive
potential.
Explicit Policies
 intended to affect land use directly;
these policies are embodied (or are
supposed to be embodied) in the
national hierarchy of plans
 This hierarchy, which has horizontal
linkages across the planning-investment
programming-budgeting-
implementation process and vertical
linkages from the national down to the
local level, represents the ideal
scenario.
 In the case of cities and municipalities,
they are mandated to prepare
Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs)
 and City/Municipal Development Plans
(C/MDPs), which are intended to guide
the physical/land use and sectoral
components, respectively, of their
development.
 These plans result in program, project
and other activity (PPA) proposals,
which are then prioritized and
subjected to a multi-year investment
programming process, and then
allocated annual budgets for
implementation.
Implicit Policies
 Sectoral plans or policies which are not
necessarily or primarily intended to
affect land use but nonetheless affect
the way land is utilized
 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (which constrains the supply of
land available for urban expansion)
 Rent Control Law (which discourages
urban renewal and redevelopment)
 Non-renewal of the US-Philippines
military bases agreement (which
triggered major nodes of development,
e.g. Subic, Clark, Camp John Hay, in
various locations throughout the
country)
 policy of maximizing revenues from
government property auctions (which
dictates redevelopment of such
properties into high density and high
value projects)
Reasons why land use policies and plans might
have had minimal positive impact on the built
environment
1. Supply-bias and lack of consideration
for demand
 Land use planning has been
heavily-biased towards land
suitability rather than land use
demand
 This contributes to land market
distortions because prescribed
land uses tend to be based on
what is physically suitable
rather than on what the city or
municipality needs.
 The lack of consideration for
demand is also demonstrated
by the weak or even absence of
integration between
demographic analysis and
subsequent land use
recommendations in the CLUP
2. Lack of inter-local/metro integration
 The lack of planning integration
among LGUs has compromised
land use compatibility across
local boundaries (often
complicated by boundary
disputes) as well as the
efficiency of basic services such
as transportation and traffic
management, security, and
flood control and drainage.
 Beyond the metro level,
watershed or river basin
analysis, which typically extends
beyond several LGUs, is needed
to ensure effective
environmental planning and
disaster risk reduction.
3. Use of outdated or inappropriate
planning principles and design
parameters.
 Many land use plans do not
reflect current planning
principles and approaches. In
some cases, western planning
concepts are haphazardly
applied even if these are
inappropriate or impractical to
local conditions.
  Example: New Urbanism/Smart
Growth Planning Principles
advocate compact, high density,
pedestrian- and transit oriented
mixed use communities but it is
not suitable for the densities in
residential neighborhoods in
the Philippines
 What needs to be done is to
improve the quality of the
environment where all of these
are taking place rather than to
introduce what already exists.
4. Spatial vs Social Equity
 Each province or region is
compelled to have the same
number of state universities, an
international airport, or a
provincial/regional industrial
center, regardless of market or
competitive considerations
5. Lack of Disaster Risk Reduction
Conditions for a Land Use Policy to Have a
Provisions
Positive Impact
 The concepts of risk,
vulnerability, probability and
tradeoffs as part of disaster risk
reduction have yet to be fully
understood and accepted.
 the quality and availability of
disaster risk reduction planning
tools such as geohazard maps
need to be continuously
improved.
6. Weak planning-implementation
linkages and corruption
 Even assuming the technical
merits of land use plans and
policies, their development
impacts are not realized
because of weak linkages to the
rest of the planning-
implementation process.
 Spot zoning occurs at the
planning stage when a specific
parcel is rezoned in response to
incentives and pressures from
vested interests and LGU
officials
 During periodic reviews of the
CLUP and the zoning ordinance,
usually every five years,
changes in zoning classifications
are likewise the subjects of
political tradeoffs, compromise,
and corrupt practices.
 At the budgeting and
implementation end of the
process, favored projects (some
funded through pork barrel
funds) may be inserted or
prioritized, regardless of their
relevance (or lack of it) to the
overall CLUP.
1. Technical Merit
 The land use plan’s immediate
role is to serve as the core of
the CLUP, which is intended to
guide or lead the LGU in the
attainment of its goals and
objectives.
 it is important that the specific
drivers of land use issues and
concerns (whether explicit or
implicit) are understood and
related to social objectives and
to corresponding land use
proposals
 The problem of low income
housing, for example, is less a
problem of housing and more
of low income. And low income
 and lack of employment for the
poor is not addressed by
designating livelihood centers in
a land use plan; rather, it
requires economic growth that
is labor intensive, enhanced
labor mobility and human
capital development (e.g.
education, training), and
increased credit access to SMEs.
 Ultimately, the objective of a
land use plan is not to have
desired activities designated in
a map but to define and
promote the land use
environments that will support
the attainment of social
objectives.
 land use planning will require
land use conflict identification
and management/resolution.
Land development is prone to
land use conflicts because as a
platform for activities, land cuts
across all sectors.
 In general, consideration should
be given such that land using
activities take place in areas
that, in order of priority: (1) do
not pose direct threats to public
safety (disaster risk reduction
measures); (2) enhance and
protect lifeline systems
(transport routes,
communication lines, water and
power service delivery); and (3)
promote the sustainability of
productive resources and key
support services.
2. Implementation Mandate and
Organization Capability
 The enactment of a National
Land Use Act (NLUA) could
provide the much needed
mandate to consolidate and
integrate land use policies even
while retaining LGU jurisdiction
over land use planning and
enforcement.
 As far as manpower is
concerned, many LGUs do not
have the sufficient number to
conduct required planning
activities.
 the three-year tenure of the
local leadership does not
encourage or even makes it
impractical to initiate a plan
that looks seriously beyond the
short term.
 Having the right technical land
use policies is good to have but
not having them is not
important or even relevant if
the CLUP itself is not expected
to play an important or catalytic
role in the first place
 A logical approach is, first, (a)
politicize the planning process
by increasing or introducing
genuine participation among
stakeholders, thereby
encouraging broader public
ownership of the plan and
enhancing the possibility that
proposed projects are
shepherded and implemented.
Second, (b) increase the
technical basis for budgeting
and implementation in order to
reduce the influence of a
“dividing the spoils” approach
to resource allocation. (Corpuz
2007)
3. Resource Requirement
  Given limited resources, there is
a need to be strategic as far as
planning and project
identification are concerned.


Examples of Land Use Conflicts

 Built up land uses encroaching into

agricultural and other production (A&D)
areas.
 Built up land uses encroaching into
forest protection areas.
 Built up land uses encroaching into
protection and disaster-prone areas in
built up areas.
 Agricultural and other non-built up
production areas encroaching into
protection and disaster-prone areas
within other production areas.
 Agricultural and other non-built up
production areas encroaching into
forest protection areas.