Community Planning: Methods and Conflicts

• Community planning was a disputed issue during its peak.
• Needleman & Needleman defined community planning as a source of problematic relations with employing organizations due to its disputed methods, impossibility to implement, abrasive intensity, and tendency to cause conflicts.
• Community planning is presented as a method within rational overall planning and as a separate approach.
• Theoretically, it is comprehensive rational planning, but practically, it opposes rational planning models.
• Some see this opposition as an advantage, while others see it as a flaw.
• The argument between those who negate and affirm community planning centers around its effectiveness in achieving support for planning and quiescence in the planned environment.
• Writers favoring community planning mention the positive influence of residents' participation, the atmosphere of planning, and its problem-solving effectiveness.
• Opponents argue that chaotic reality and few achievements outweigh the advantages.
• Disappointment in community planning is evident in the theories of planning.
• If the main issue is planning success, then only support and quiescence can justify the planner's cooperation with the community.
• Procedures and rituals of participation aim for social agreement and consent rather than social change or community creation.
• Community planning can become a manipulation and a double message.
• A common approach in community planning theories exists apart from exceptionally sensitive planners.

Challenges in Effective Public Participation

• Significant developments should include a specific amount of funding in their budgets for effective participation at all stages.
• Effective participation takes time and energy, with methods to suit a range of budgets.
• Over-tight budgets lead to cutting corners and poor results in community planning, which has dramatic implications for the future.
• The costs of building the wrong thing in the wrong place can be astronomical, dwarfing the cost of proper community planning; budget generously.

Planning Aid Schemes

• Provide free, independent planning advice to those who cannot afford a consultant.
• Planning aid schemes aim to give people knowledge, skills, and confidence to deal with the planning system and become involved in wider planning issues.
• Such schemes are set up and run by national or regional professional institutions.
• A register of qualified professional planners is prepared to volunteer their time.
• People needing help are put in touch with the nearest suitable volunteer on the register.
• The volunteer assists as much as possible and refers queries to the authorities or consultants if appropriate.
• Well-established schemes may employ paid workers, establish telephone helplines, produce publications, and encourage community participation.
• Government grant assistance is useful for setting up and administering planning aid systems.
• Information sheets on the planning system and common issues can make the volunteer's job much easier.
• Setting-up costs include administration in compiling a register and distributing publicity material.
• Ongoing costs include dealing with inquiries
• The planning aid network is coordinated by the national office of a professional institution where regional branches publicize the scheme locally and maintain registers of volunteer planners.

Community Issues in Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development must reflect monitoring and results from programs with resident-led implementation systems.
• These programs include the rehabilitation of community roads and the improvement of livelihood.

Community Challenges in Sectoral Studies

• “Sector” plays a role in community development through administrative instructions on organization registration and mediation of conflict among residents.
• Sectors are closely involved in the Community Development Plan among the administrative service providers.
• Sectors provide advice and guidance for preparing rules for Community Development Committees at their establishment.
• Registration of the committees to the territory and province has been done with sector advice and guidance.
• Sector chiefs should solve problems not solved within villages or communities.
• Sector chiefs provide necessary advice and guidance when decision-making is required or when a problem has emerged in the Development Plans.
• Sector staff provides advice and guidance to the daily activities of villagers' organizations of each project.

Basic Principles Interactional in Environment

• Principle 1 (Wilkinson's Principles of Community Development): Community development's long-term theme should be developing the community as a human relationship structure, not merely developing things.
• Principle 2: Community development must reflect and express the values and wishes of the local population.
• Principle 3: Community development requires special interest groups to commit to aligning their efforts with those of other groups.
• Principle 4: Community development requires continuous attention to problems and needs in all local life areas.
• Principle 5: Sustained community development requires an organizational structure.
• Principle 6: Community requires communication.
• Principle 7: Community development requires a commitment beyond selfish gain, at least by a small number of people in any community.

Stages of Community Development

• Phase 1: Initiation generates widespread consciousness of an issue among various community interest avenues.
• The first step is to schedule and hold a meeting with the group that initiated the process.
• Phase 2: Organization of Sponsorship forms multi-interest and inter-organizational networks and linkages to coordinate and integrate actions across social fields.
• In this phase, a community-based planning steering committee is formed.
• Phase 3: Visioning, Goal Setting and Strategy Formation develops a vision, short-term and long-range goals, and strategies that transcend the special interests of particular social fields.
• Identifying and prioritizing issues confronting the community is important to community-based planning.
• Phase 4: Recruitment encourages participation, builds cohesion, develops new leaders and leadership skills, and coordinates actions.
• In this phase, the community-based planning steering committee needs to schedule a community-wide meeting and bring the public up to speed on the committee's previous work and planned activities.
• Phase 5: Implementation applies resources and employs strategies to build, strengthen, and maintain the structure of the community field.
• In this phase, it is time to implement the community-based plan.
• Phase 6: Evaluation identifies and celebrates specific outputs and outcomes of the process.

Community Development Scenarios

• Community Centre: Applies to the design and construction of any building for community use.
• The conventional approach would be for a local authority to commission architects to plan and design a building then managed by that authority.
• Planning and design are then coordinated by a special project group which involves everyone interested at key stages.
• A community needs a new social center, sports facility, school, health center, or village hall.
• Derelict Site Re-Use: This scenario shows making use of a derelict area of land in public ownership to counteract the negative effects such land usually attracts.
• Sites are often left vacant for many years.
• Local authorities may carry out some landscaping or sell the land to the private sector for development.
• Anyone can take the initiative; a local authority, regeneration agency, community group, or urban design studio at a school of architecture or planning.
• An initiative to make use of a derelict urban site in public ownership.
• Disaster Management: This scenario applies to communities facing natural or human-made disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, windstorms, and industrial accidents.
• Disasters tend to happen to vulnerable people.
• Vulnerability can best be reduced by increasing people's capacity to deal with social, cultural, economic, and physical factors.
• Successful disaster management ensures victims and potential victims are involved, unlike much formal disaster management, which is often unsustainable, costly, and ineffective.
• Participatory Community-Level Disaster Management: This involves a cross-section of people and interests in researching, planning, and implementing projects.
• Because the projects are developed for and by local people, there is more interest, understanding, and success in reducing suffering and losses.
• Communities are best placed to prioritize threats and take effective risk-reducing actions.
• The best time to reduce the impact of disasters is before the next one occurs.
• Identifying hazards and who and what may be affected is necessary before risk reduction plans can be made.
• Progress has to be well publicized to maintain interest and strengthen the culture of disaster reduction.
• Communities become more disaster-resistant by involving citizens, officials, and businesses.
• Environmental Art Project: This scenario is about constructing environmental artworks.
• The artist submits designs for approval to the 'client'.
• Local people are involved in designing and making artworks managed by artists, so their work becomes part of the landscape.
• An initiative to improve the public environment by constructing a major sculpture, mosaic or other work of art.
• Housing Development: building a new housing development for a large number of people.
• Conventionally, large housing developments are undertaken by governments or private developers.
• Owner-occupiers or tenants form themselves into a housing cooperative, appoint their architects, and work through the design and construction process.
• A large new housing development is built with the future occupants involved from the outset.
• Industrial Heritage Re-Use: Applies where industrial buildings become redundant, particularly if they have heritage value or could be used for other purposes.
• Industrial areas often contain fine, sturdy structures which contribute to local character.
• They are ideally suited for conversion for other purposes.
• The difficulty is in making a sufficiently bold transformation of an area to change its image, attract new uses and persuade landowners and others to invest.
• An academic institution helps a local authority regenerate a run-down industrial area in a variety of ownerships.
• Inner City Regeneration: This scenario shows a deprived inner city area transforming itself over almost a decade.
• Starting with tenants gaining control of housing management, local people and their advisors become increasingly confident and competent in managing the regeneration process and forming partnerships.
• Rejuvenation of a deprived inner city area dominated by blocks of local authority flats and lacking amenities.
• Local Neighbourhood Initiative applies to any area where institutional landowners and agencies are operating and where local people want to improve the environment and quality of life.
• The difficulty is often getting all the various landowners and agencies to agree on a development strategy.
• Local people in a rundown neighborhood and agencies working with them take the initiative to speed up the regeneration process.
• New Neighbourhood: Creative proposals can be developed for a new neighborhood, an extension of a neighborhood, or a completely new settlement.
• It is left to the private sector to come up with proposals, or consultants might be invited to prepare a master plan for consideration by the authorities.
• The organizers are likely to be an urban design consultancy, architecture center, or urban design studio at a school of architecture or planning.
• Devising proposals for a new neighborhood involves a task force of experts and students working closely with local interested parties.
• Planning Study: This applies where professional planning consultants are commissioned by a local authority or landowner to produce recommendations on future development options in a relatively short time.
• Consultants prepare a report based entirely on their past experience and research available literature.
• This ensures that the consultants' proposals are based on up-to-date knowledge of local people's views and that local people begin to become involved in the development process.
• Planning consultants are asked by a local authority to prepare a study of the potential of a large sector of a city.
• Regeneration Infrastructure shows how the framework for encouraging community planning can be improved by government and private and voluntary agencies.
• The focus is on supporting and promoting the setting up of enabling mechanisms, some of which will become self-financing after some time.
• The costs involved are a fraction of the support normally given to regeneration programs, and the long-term benefits are likely to be far greater.
• Leading institutions and governments collaborate to set up a framework to support community planning initiatives at the local level.
• Shanty Settlement Upgrading: This applies to the informal settlements that proliferate around many cities in developing countries.
• Authorities ignore such places, leaving them to their own devices or attempting demolition on the grounds that they are unsightly, unhealthy, or unlawful.
• The authorities support residents in upgrading their settlements through technical assistance leading to service installations, road improvements, and raised building construction standards.
• Residents gradually upgrade their homes and neighborhoods with assistance from authorities, experts and support agencies.
• Town Centre Upgrade applies when a planning authority wants to initiate improvements.
• Many town center areas have developed piecemeal over a number of years in varied ownerships with buildings are designed with little respect for overall urban design.
• A planning department initiates the development of part of the town center without the conflict between developers and citizens.
• Urban Conservation: This covers an initiative to improve the state of historic buildings in a town, where restoring buildings is very costly and sufficient public funds are rarely available.
• As well as administering grants to pump-prime quality repairs by private owners, the project undertakes a wide range of education programs aimed at raising awareness and stimulating initiatives by both private individuals and community groups.
• An initiative to improve the state of historic buildings in an area by raising awareness and stimulating a wide range of local activities.
• Village Revival: This scenario covers a village developing initiatives to preserve and build on the local character.
• With changes in traditional agricultural practices, many villages suffer from either development pressure or loss of population, often feeling powerless due to distant political control.
• Villagers develop a local design statement to guide the new development, preparing a countryside design summary to improve links with the character of the surrounding region.
• A village community takes steps to protect the traditional character and develop new facilities.
• Whole Settlement Strategy: This creates a vision for a village, town, or city as a whole and sets out ways to achieve it.
• A local authority to engage consultants to produce a plan which would then be put out to consultation, modified and adopted.
• The UN sets this requirement in its 'Agenda 21', also improving the likelihood that the strategy will be approved and implemented.
• A local authority initiates a strategy to improve a town's sustainability, involving local people and service providers in its creation.

RA 9003 - Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000

• This is a comprehensive program for managing solid waste, promoting resource conservation, and protecting public health and the environment through proper segregation, collection, storage, treatment, and disposal.
• Section 10. Role of LGUs in Solid Waste Management: LGUs are primarily responsible for implementation and enforcement within their jurisdictions per R.A. No. 7160.
• Waste segregation and collection shall be conducted at the barangay level specifically for biodegradable, compostable, and reusable wastes.
• The collection of non-recyclable materials and special wastes is the responsibility of the municipality or city.

Section 12. City and Municipal Solid Waste Management Board

• The City and Municipal Solid Waste Boards have duties and responsibilities
• They develop a Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan that ensures long-term management and integrates strategies of the barangays.
• The Plan requires consultations with the sectors of the community.
• These Boards adopt measures to ensure the effective implementation of programs in its component barangays.
• These Boards monitor the implementation of the Municipal Solid Waste Management Plan as well as cooperate with aid from the private sector and NGOs.
• The boards adopt revenue-increasing measures to promote the viability of the Solid Waste Management Plans
• These boards convene meetings to plan and coordinate the implementation of waste management plans where they also oversee the implementations
• These boards review solid waste management every 2 years to ensure sustainability, viability, relationships to local and international developments in a field of waste management
• They develop guidelines for the implementation of their waste management plan and recommend measures for build-operate-transfer agreements.
• These municipalities provide the necessary support to its cities pursuant to Section 17 of the local government code
• They recommend safeguards against pollution and preserve the natural ecosystem
• the boards coordinate the efforts of its barangays in the implementation of the solid waste management plan

Section 17. The Components of the Local Government Solid Waste Management Plan

• The elements of the solid waste management plan include the following components.

• (a) City or Municipal Profile - Background information is indicated to include the municipality with other background information and key highlights from other conditions

• (1) The estimated population for Each Barangay and population project for a 10-year period

• (2) a map indicating commercial and industrial centers, agricultural areas including landfill,s and potential proposed sites

• (3) Estimated solid waste generation by sources from residential, commercial, or construction

• (4) Inventory of facilities for existing waste including capacities

• (b) Waste characterization – For the initial source reduction and recycling element, the constituent materials are listed

• (c) Collection and Transfer – Plan Shall account for geographic subdivisions to outline the coverage for waste collection in every barangay which defines its collection for a 100% efficiency.

• Each barangay ensures the plan defines and identifies the specific activities and strategies for reuse, recycling, and composting

• The plan includes containers for waste, selected collection and transfer points to transfer sites or for composting

• Issuance and enforcement of ordinances to implement collection in the barangay including the transport of solid wastes

Section 32. Establishment of LGU Materials Recovery Facility

• A Material Recovery Facility is Established (MRF) Every barangay or a cluster of barangays where the MRF will be established in an owned land
• Residual wastes will transferred to a long-term disposal or landfill

Other Laws

• RA 7160 - Local Government Code of 1991
• Law governing local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines, aiming to decentralize power and resources to LGUs, promoting local autonomy and self-reliance

CHAPTER 1. - Role and Creation of the Barangay

• SECTION 384. Role of the Barangay: The barangay serves as the primary planning unit involving policies, plans and programs, as well as settles disputes in activities within the community

SECTION 385. Manner of Creation

• A barangay may be divided by a substantially altered law by the sangunniang

SECTION 386. Requisites for Creation.

• Requisites for Barangay creation include
  • A contiguous territory with a population of 2,000
  • Basic service should be enhanced
  • Territorial jurisdiction should be identified by natural boundaries

CHAPTER 2. - Barangay Officials and Offices

• SECTION 387 Each barangay should consist of the following
  • A punong barangay
  • 7 sangguniang brangay member
  • A barangay Treasure
  • lupong-tagapamayapa office

SECTION 389.

• Punong barangay shall exercise such powers duties and functions as provided by the code and other laws toward governance
• (1) They should enforce all ordinances and laws
• (2) The punong should negotiate with enter into contracts of authority with the Sangguniang
• (3) should maintain public order for their city functions
• (4) calls on the preside with the sessions of the sang tuning
• (5) appoint as secretary
• (6) lead groups and be necessary for the maintenance of peace
• (7) coordination with development council
• (8) approve voucher relating to disbarment as funds
• (9) enforce the protection of the environment
• (10) Admindtier the opearation of the katarungang prombarngaryd
• (11) Exercise general supervise
• (12) Delivery the service
• ( 13) conduct the parong barangay
• (14) Promote the general welfare
• (15) exercise perform and functions on their duties

Sangunniang barangay

• Legislative body
  • seven-member 7 members and Kabataan members to be elected
• (ordinances) duties, and functions
  • to the design of the ordinance/ laws
  • taxes and revenue as this code
  • enact adamant budget subject for visions in the code
• facilitate and services