Old landfill area considered as future City Hall site

THE old landfill area near the 17-hectare Cagayan de Oro Ecopark in Upper Carmen is being considered as a potential site for the future City Hall which may occupy 30 hectares of land area, an administration official said yesterday.

“Based on what available initial information I learned, the old landfill site near the Eco-park in Upper Carmen (is being considered as a future City Hall site). The location is good not only for the city’s first district but also the second district as it is located in the middle of the city and it can conveniently serve residents of both the east and west of the city,” Councilor Edgar Cabanlas said in Visayan.

On her Facebook page, Councilor Maria Lourdes Gaane said a joint meeting of the committees on subdivision and landed estate, ways, and means, public works, and tourism deliberated on Cabanlas’ proposal to transfer City Hall to another location.

Gaane said a development plan for the City Hall transfer should be presented to the executive department for review.

Cabanlas, who chairs the council committee on subdivision and landed estate, said they deferred the matter since they will wait on the executive department, specifically the mayor’s office, for their presentation of a City Hall transfer plan.

Earlier acting City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) chief Ramir Balquin said they have yet to receive an order from Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy on this matter.

“Any future City Hall (transfers) plan (if there will be one, it will have to be decided on) because it will have a (substantial) effect on the city’s zoning development plan,” Balquin said.

As to what will happen to the old City Hall building, Cabanlas said it was the initial consensus of the committees that it is retained especially the Executive Building.

“This is a tentative consensus that if the City Hall transfer should proceed, the Executive Building across the Cathedral will not be touched because it represents the city of Cagayan de Oro and it’s filled with historical value. So we need to retain it. The rest of the old buildings, may be converted into a museum or whatever. It can also be a parking area or it may serve as the site of the proposed City College of Mayor Klarex’s administration,” Cabanlas said.

In allocating 30 hectares for the future City Hall site, Cabanlas said this land area will better accommodate City Hall’s plans to become a one-stop shop center for both local and national government transactions.

Councilor Jay Roa Pascual, who chairs the tourism committee, said any future City Hall site should accommodate businesses that will likely relocate to the area to service City Hall’s large workforce.

Earlier, Mayor Uy said he supported Cabanlas’s proposal to transfer City Hall to a better location and disclosed that Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri assured him of initial funding of half a billion pesos for the transfer plan should it proceed.

The mayor said while the current City Hall location served its purpose during its early days, it cannot accommodate the current needs of the city’s growing population. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)