Arientha Primanita – Planning and environmental experts have lambasted the Jakarta administration over its draft of the city's spatial master plan, which they argue contains two unlawful points. The 2010-2030 Spatial Master Plan is being deliberated by the City Council and is expected to be passed in the form of a bylaw next month.

However, Nirwono Joga, an urban planning expert from Jakarta's Trisakti University, said the draft deviated from the 2007 Law on Spatial Planning on some key points.

The law stipulates that 30 percent of the city's area be dedicated to open green space, with the administration providing 20 percent and the private sector 10 percent. However, the bylaw calls for the city to provide 14 percent and the private sector 16 percent.

"This is a violation of the law, which clearly states that the public-private split be 20 to 10," Nirwono said.

He added that while the administration was trying to shirk its duty by setting itself a lower target, it could still achieve its legally mandated goal within 20 years if it was willing to do so.

"Based on my satellite photo research, we can potentially open up another 23 percent of the city's area as green space," he said. "So combine this with the 9.6 percent already dedicated to green space, and we can achieve even more than the 30 percent stipulated in the law."

The current figure of 9.6 percent is still lower than the 13.9 percent of green space that Jakarta was supposed to possess by the end of 2010.

Nirwono also questioned the inclusion in the draft bylaw of a coastal land reclamation project that the Environment Ministry had not yet approved.

The city is reclaiming a 32 kilometer-long stretch off Jakarta Bay to provide an additional 2,700 hectares of land. The project failed to pass an environmental impact analysis (Amdal) and was ordered halted by the Supreme Court.

Ubaidillah, executive director of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said the reclamation project would only foster social injustice by serving the interests of companies and wealthy residents at the expense of poorer ones.

"There will be injustice because the reclamation project will provide land for industries and lavish housing complexes, while people living along riverbanks will be evicted," he said.

Wiryatmoko, head of the city's Spatial Planning Office, defended the administration, saying the project was necessary to accommodate the city's growing population. He claimed the matter had been discussed with the Environment Ministry.