Idis proposes Shrine Hills Park
IN order to ensure revenue of private landowners as well as to protect Shrine Hills in general, Interface Development Interventions (Idis) proposes for the establishment of a Shrine Hills Park which will be privatelyowned but will be opened to the public.
IDIS executive director Chinkie Pelino-Golle said the Shrine Hills Park Connector Network will cover the 222-hectare urban ecological enhancement subzone (UEESZ) or those that “are intended for massive greening program for ecological enhancement in major urban zone.”
In Shrine Hills, the 222-hectare land area is included in the areas determined by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to be vulnerable to landslides. The land areas included in this 222-hectare have their own danger scales under high or medium susceptibility or so on. The proposed park, which has yet to have final façade details, is envisioned to have a few infrastructure components however this will still be subject for evaluation.
Based on the proposal of Idis, amenities that may be included in the UEESZ are refreshment parlor, gadgets/sports retail/rental shop, elevated walkway/ trail, hanging bridges, view deck/observatory spaces, rappelling and rock climbing facilities, botanical garden, endemic animal sanctuary, and petting zoo and other facilities with similar activities.
According to Golle, this proposal had been presented to the first four committee hearings presided by committee chair on laws, rules, and ordinances Councilor Melchor Quitain, Jr. During these hearings, landowners had expressed their different concerns on their land. Golle said landowners are concerned that they might not be able to use their land as inheritance to their children and grandchildren in the future should it be included in the Shrine Hills Park.
Others, especially those owning retreat houses and similar businesses, are concerned of the additional food traffic it might bring to Shrine Hills once it would be converted to a huge park. This concern arises as the nature of their business invests on the serenity and the silence of Shrine Hills.
“Despite these concerns, we are still hopeful that eventually they would agree on the proposal of converting Shrine Hills into a huge park. Everything is still for discussion anyway. During the four committee hearings, not all the landowners were present so a general decision couldn’t be made yet. We’re hoping that on June, during the last committee hearing, everyone would be there and everything would be laid done and discussed,” Golle said.
She added that they are especially hopeful that the bigger developers would consider and be convinced that the conversion of Shrine Hills into a huge park will be a win-win situation for the business sector, the city government of Davao, and of the environment.
The proposed Shrine Hill Park will include Taytay Hilltop Walk, Langub Park Connector, Outland Adventure Basin, Shrine Hills Stormwater Park, Takanawon Canopy Walk, Shrine Hills Forest Park, and the existing Gap Farm.
“If we can develop Shrine Hills into a big connecting park, this is really a big contribution to the sustainable development goal (SDG). It states that for big cities like Davao City, we should have huge open green spaces. Here in Davao City, we have 224,000 hectares of land area. Our urban area is 36,000 to 40,000 hectares. Supposedly every person should have access to a 9-square meter park. But our current park area in Davao City is only at 16,000 to 20,000 hectares only. That’s not enough when we look at our current population,” Golle further explained.
On top of this proposal to convert Shrine Hills into an ecotourism park, IDIS also proposes construction footprint limitation for the Eco-Tourism Park. Under this, there will only be 25 percent allowable total land area to be used for construction footprint while the remaining 75 percent is proposed to be used for greening projects.
There are also proposed allowable improvements along the slope. This includes walkway and other ecotourism structures given that the engineering design had been checked and approved by the Committee making sure that the safety standards and ecological preservation are observed. JPA