LDA plan to expand City rejected

LAHORE
As the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) held a public hearing for amending the city’s master plan, a large number of citizens reached the venue and rejected the move, terming it a disaster for the city, its population and environment.
The LDA organised the hearing on Thursday morning in its committee room, which is inaccessible to general public, as its security guards stopped a large number of people from going in on the pretext that the room was already full.
The citizens, who managed to enter, declared the proposed amendment to the master plan of Lahore by converting agricultural land to residential as the most disastrous step in the history of the provincial capital. Office bearers of the organisations such as Lahore Conservation Society, Lahore Bachao Tehreek, Lahore Project and Park Bachao Tehreek also attended the hearing, which was presided over by LDA Director General Ahad Khan Cheema.
The citizens revealed that LDA had planned to convert agricultural and semi-restricted areas around the city which are larger than the entire existing urban area of the city.
They said Lahore was a mega city with a population of over 10.5 million and the additional conversion of agricultural land would have an area large enough to accommodate another 15 to 20 million people. Sources in LDA claimed such expansion was not taken place in any master plan since 1966 till 2004, adding that the proposal was an alteration to 2004 Master Plan, which was valid till 2021.
The current project is called Phase-1, in addition there are 4 so-called ‘study areas’ which will collectively cover an area larger than the current urban area of Lahore, sources revealed.
Lahore is already bursting at the seams, with no integrated sustainable land use and mobility planning. There is a lack of linkages and billions of rupees are being spent on mega signal-free corridors to facilitate 7 per cent of the population that own vehicles while the remaining 93 per cent are invisible, said Imrana Tiwana, general secretary of Lahore Conservation Society and convener of Lahore Bachao Tehreek.
While speaking at the public hearing, she said it was shocking to see that an additional area, larger than the current urban area of Lahore, was being proposed in the amendment to the 2004/2021 Master Plan. She said “development interventions in Lahore suffered from a severe disconnect with the ground realities and needs of ‘all’ citizens. Urban sprawl as a planning practice is now redundant, higher densities promoting efficient land use/zoning and integrated transport is the answer. Public transport, pedestrians, cyclist and motorcyclists should be given priority.”
She further said the existing urban area should be provided with basic amenities and efficient transport. She said cities could not grow indefinitely and defining city boundaries was need of the hour. “New self-sufficient satellite cities should be established for the increasing population with adequate/ functional and efficient resources and infrastructure.”
Tiwana said 70 per cent of the existing schemes were lying vacant and added that the environmental impacts of removing ground cover and green would cause disastrous and irreversible degradation to the natural and built environment of Lahore with a severe negative impact on the lives and health of citizens.
She added that re-charge zones would be replaced by concrete and hot spots created, raising the temperatures by 2 to 7 degrees and eventually Lahore would have no water.
She also pointed out that “there is a ‘conflict of interest’ where LDA is both the developer and the approver.” She said neutral third parties should be involved in the planning and implementation processes.
Lahore Conservation Society President Kamil Khan Mumtaz said the massive addition was ludicrous and amounted to a mass collective suicide if implemented. He said amending the plan was illegal and maintained that 90 per cent of the population were in densities lower than 100 persons per hectare and that the crowded areas, which comprised 10 per cent, had densities of 2 to 3,000 persons per hectare.
If these land in-fills were balanced out with average densities there was no need to add an inch to the existing urban area, he added.
He said cities should be walk-able and given the provision of workplace within walking distance, reducing the need for an ever expanding increase in vehicles. “This way 30 million more people can be accommodated within the existing urban area of Lahore,” he said, adding that there was a need to change the urban planning model.
Dr Anis Siddiqui - a renowned an architect - said he was alarmed that the larger public interest was not being considered. He said the continuous changes showed a ‘failure of the master planning process’, adding that the 2004 plan had not even been implemented but unnecessary amendments, which were not based on ground realities, were being proposed.
Objecting strongly, he said there was a lack of vision and the LDA’s process involved ‘upside down participation’ as nothing was done professionally. He said that all plans were based on factual statistics of ‘zoning and density’, adding that there was an urgent need to redefine planning procedures.
Dr Shahid Chaudhry of Lahore School of Economics was concerned over the conversion of agricultural land into residential spaces as there was an agricultural research station in their college.
Rafia Kamal, a landscape ecologist and environmentalist, called for the use of international standards for strategic long-term visionary planning. She said the required green cover for such areas was 35 to 40 per cent whereas the current green cover was less than 5 per cent. She questioned which urban policy was being followed as the ground realities suggest otherwise.
Barrister Nudrat Majeed said the best practices internationally valued the importance of open land and how it could be an economic asset “as open areas are essential and rapidly becoming scarce.”
Rabia Ezdi, an architect and urban planner, felt that several villages in the converted areas were walled up so they were not visible to the elite and treated like ‘undesirables’. She was of the view that the project was not required.
Raza Dada, an architect and planner, said the project was neither viable nor based on visionary urban practices. He asked the DG that if the majority of citizens at the public hearing ‘rejected’ the project what would be the outcome and how would the citizens be assured of their inclusion as stakeholders.
Dr Naumana Amjad, a psychologist, talked about the increasing stress factor which was rising over 10 per cent every few months due to the massive negative impacts of urbanisation. Expansion of urban boundaries and adding another 15 million people will result in huge psychological issues due to high levels of stress.
Reema Siddiqui, a young citizen said she had started cycling and found out how dangerous it was. She said cycling and pedestrianisation were the need of the hour.
Most people described the move as discriminatory ad-hoc decision while overlooking the needs of the other areas of Lahore which were in desperate need of attention. They said there was no transparency in the decision and that it was being done for certain vested interests, which was unfair to the citizens of Lahore.
Later, the Lahore Conservation Society, Lahore Bachao Tehreek and Park Bachao Tehreek handed over a joint official letter to the LDA director general, director (metropolitan planning) and chief metropolitan planner with subject ‘Amendment to Lahore Master Plan 2021-Comments for Public Hearing’.
It said the project should not be undertaken, as it would cause irreversible degradation and damage to the city and its inhabitants. It added that the current proposal was not part of any master plan going as far back as 1966.
“The best practices all over the world are avoiding ‘urban sprawl’ as an undesirable, inefficient and dysfunctional planning method.”