Council body not amenable to proposed zoning changes

The proposed zoning amendment requiring buildings in the city to have loading and unloading bays may not be advisable, according to the City Council committee on laws that studied and reviewed the proposed measure, authored by Councilor Raul Alcoseba.

Alcoseba’s proposed ordinance has sought to revise some provisions of the city’s zoning laws, specifically on the requirement for buildings along major streets to allocate a 10-meter space from the road side, and designate their respective loading and unloading bays.

The committee, headed by Councilor Edgardo Labella, decided to return the proposed measure to Alcoseba with the suggestion that the latter may consider the committee observations and comments to the proposal.

The committee had said that it is not advisable to require indiscriminately all buildings to follow the provisions, as Alcoseba had proposed, because many of the streets are already declared no-stopping zones so there would be no need to provide loading and unloading bays at all.

While the committee admitted that no-stopping zones may be reclassified in areas where there are already loading and unloading bays, it said that it would be impossible to have loading and unloading bays in each building standing on each side of the street.

“The committee therefore suggests that instead of indiscriminately requiring all buildings to provide loading/unloading bays, certain areas in the major thoroughfares in the city need only be identified as necessitating loading/unloading bays (especially in areas where loading and unloading had been very frequent),” it said.

On the proposed 10-meter space from the building to the roadside, the committee said that the city must be prepared to address the expected concern of affected owners who might claim that they are deprived of beneficial use of their property as a result.

The committee report stated that such provision may be deemed an exercise of local eminent domain that would demand the payment of just compensation to the property owner. “The issue therefore is whether the proposed ordinance is really one of regulation or taking under eminent domain,” it said.

It added that since the loading and unloading bays will be established in certain areas and intended for public use, the Alcoseba measure will be under eminent domain already, requiring just compensation. — Wenna A. Berondo/RAE