BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the city building and architecture office (CBAO) to investigate erring building owners who converted the allocated parking spaces for commercial use after the city government issued the occupancy permits for their structures considering that such acts are in gross violation of the provisions of the National Building code of the Philippines.
The local chief executive branded the conversion of allotted parking spaces of building to commercial use as illegal and a direct affront to the power of the city government to regulate the existence of structures pursuant to existing laws, rules and regulations.
“We have to issue the appropriate notices to the building owners who were found to have converted their allotted parking spaces for commercial use. They should be reminded that their operations must not be purely business but they must have the sense of community involvement, especially in addressing our current parking woes,” Domogan stressed.
For those who committed to bring back the existence of parking spaces within their structures, the city mayor cited CBAO officials must check on their compliance to their commitment to help address the city’s worsening parking problems, especially within the central business district area.
He directed CBAO personnel to immediately issue the appropriate notices of violation to the concerned building owners and require them to immediately institute the needed interventions in order to bring back the parking spaces which would be used by their clientele in transacting business with the different tenants occupying their buildings.
According to him, numerous complaints had been received by the city mayor’s office regarding the unabated conversion of parking spaces of buildings within the central business district to commercial purposes without the approval of the concerned government agency.
It can be recalled that sometime in January this year, Domogan met with some building owners in the city who were found to have illegally converted the parking spaces allotted in their buildings for commercial use where they promised to rectify their deficiencies in order to prevent the outright cancellation of their occupancy permits.
He reminded the CBAO to also check on the compliance of concerned building owners to their previous commitments so that the local government will not be constrained to institute the appropriate measures that would lead to the cancellation of their occupancy and building permits in the future.
While the city understands the need for businessmen to earn income to sustain their operations, the city mayor pointed out businessmen should respect the approved plans and specifications of their structures as well as the provision for parking for their tenants so that they will not contribute to the worsening traffic woes of the city, especially during peaks tourism season.
He reminded local businessmen to voluntarily comply with the provisions of their building and occupancy permits and if they violated the same, institute the appropriate remedies and not wait for the city government to be the ones to discover their deficiencies and impose the necessary penalties against them or recommend the closure of their respective establishments in the coming months.
