More Yogyakartans say no to apartment construction

YOGYAKARTA. Opposition against apartment developments in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta, are being expressed by more and more people in the region over fears that such projects will bring negative impacts to the environment and social cultures.

The latest refusal has been expressed by the people of Gadingan village, Sinduharjo subdistrict, Ngaglik district.

“The administration has to help its people and not support the conglomerates. If I could, I would cry out loud so President Joko Widodo would stop the development of the apartment in Gadingan,” chairman of the local neighborhood unit, Agnes Dibyo Sanjoyo, told The Jakarta Post, on Thursday.

Around Gadingan, locals have placed banners expressing their opposition to the development of the 12-story apartment, M Icon, the construction of which has been started despite the protest.

An access road connecting Jl. Kaliurang Km 11 and the site of the planned apartment is being built.

“We are afraid that the development of the apartment will make people’s wells dry up and increase the property taxes in the region, while the people here are relatively poor economically,” Agnes said.

The same rejection had been previously conveyed by residents of Karangwuni village in Caturtunggal subdistrict, Depok district, and of Pogung village in Sinduadi subdistrict, Mlati. Both border with Yogyakarta city.

Dozens of Karangwuni residents have also been expressing opposition to the development of Uttara The Icon apartment on Jl. Kaliurang Km 5 for about a year.

 They went to the regency legislative council on Thursday, demanding the council’s Commission A overseeing the issue to urge Sleman’s regent to stop the development project.

“Heavy equipment has been deployed to the site, disturbing us with loud noises and tremors, like in earthquakes,” said Teti, secretary of the association of Karangwuni people refusing the apartment.

 A similar rejection was also expressed by Pogung residents over the planned development of an apartment for university students near the Gadjah Mada University campus compound.

“We are concerned with the negative impacts of the development of the apartment, especially the fact that it is developed for male and female university students. We worry it will lead to promiscuity and drug dealing,” Sugianto of Pogung said.

Separately, director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) of Yogyakarta branch, Halik Sandera, said that the administration needed to involve the people in detailing regency spatial planning up to the district level to let them know the zoning in their respective regions.

“According to the spatial planning, the place where The Icon is to be built is zoned for trade and services. Yet, in fact, it is also for residences,” Halik said.

The chairman of the Sleman legislative council’s Commission A, Hendrawan Astono, said that his office would be siding with the people and would monitor the regency administration’s performance in the development of apartments.

“We are also deliberating a bylaw on spatial usage licenses and are detailing the spatial planning,” Hendrawan said.

Sleman Deputy Regent Yuni Satya Rahayu said that the regency administration did not yet have a bylaw on apartment development. However, she said, the administration could not just stop the development of the apartments that it already approved, as doing so would create problems.

“We continue studying the formulation of the bylaw,” Yuni said.

She also said that if an apartment development was rejected by local residents then the investor did not need to continue the development because it would only lead to financial loss from the lack of the people’s support. (Bambang Muryanto)