BAGUIO CITY – The technical working group (TWG) organized by the city government to prepare the master development plan of the 34-hectare Burnham park complex announced the plan will be ready for the review of stakeholders by the end of the month.
Councilor Maria Mylen Victoria G. Yaranon, chairperson of the Committee on Public Works and a TWG member, said the preparation of the Burnham Park Master Development Plan (MDP) is now on its final stages and pursuant to the marching order of Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong, the same will be available on or before the end of the month.
She disclosed the Burnham Park MDP will be primarily anchored on the vision of Arch. Daniel Burnham who designed the master plan of the city in the early 1900s, to help in preserving and protecting the city’s major tourist destination from being over-developed and ensure that any development to be implemented within the 34-hectare complex will conform with the plan.
“The TWG is on the final stages of preparing the proposed Burnham Park MDP which will be presented to stakeholders for possible inputs on before the end of the month so we can start the ball rolling for implementation of plans the city government has in any portion of the park,” Councilor Yaranon stressed.
Earlier, Mayor Magalong created a TWG composed of private and public technical experts to prepare the master development plan for Burnham Park as a blueprint for any development to be introduced by the government agencies, the city government and other stakeholders in any portion of the 34-hectare complex located in the heart of the city that is the city’s major tourist attraction.
The city government accessed an initial amount of P20 million for the reblooming of Burnham Park from the State-owned Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) in 2015 but the funds were only released when the present administration took over thus the program of work and plans are being rushed for the implementation of plans the soonest.
One of the basis of the master plan used by the TWG in the preparation of the master plan is the plan donated by the University of the Cordilleras (UC) to the city government as its gift to the city during its centennial anniversary on September 1, 2009.
However, the donated master plan was not formally accepted by the city government due to various issues raised on the magnitude of the plan.
Currently, the city government does not have any master plan for Burnham Park on which to guide the park’s development, thus, the need for a plan as its basis for the implementation of projects by government agencies and the city government to improve the state of the park without significantly sacrificing the purpose on how it was master planned by the original founders of the city.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
