Carcar sets aside P2B for city center

CEBU, Philippines - Carcar City Mayor Nicepuro Apura said the city will build a center that will lump together a new city hall, an Olympic oval, a public market, and a jeepney terminal.

He said the project will cost more or less P2 billion.

The Carcar New City Center is situated between barangays Valladolid and Poblacion 3.

Of the 34.7 hectares, 19.8 hectares are to be acquired from private land owners through direct purchase and to be converted from agricultural use into a mix of institutional, commercial, and residential uses.

The 5.6 hectares are also to be similarly acquired from private land owners to be retained as irrigated rice field buffer to insure that  the remaining rice field is preserved for posterity.

In a press conference yesterday, architect and urban planning consultant Chito Alcordo said the 9.3 hectares owned by several private owners, which are adjacent to the site on one side and by the provincial road on the other will be reconfigured to allow for proper horizontal circulation through new layout of roads to enhance its property value toward a more rationalized development and become an integral part of the main development area.

These three main areas form a contiguous whole envisioned to become the New City Center.

A new rotunda will be introduced at the intersection of the provincial road and the roads leading to Dapdap and Liburon.

From this rotunda will be an axial road extending the Dapdap road to a terminating Public Plaza.

Across the city center will transverse an alternate road connecting the provincial highway at sitio Lamakan, Valladolid to the (under construction) diversion road at sitio Barraca.

Alcordo also said the proposed public transport terminal building at the north end and the sports complex (impeccably situated behind the Carcar Central School) at the south end and the Public Market and Commercial buildings in between describe the gamut of structures that will rise at the city center.

Apura, however, added that the city council has already appropriated P100 million to start with the construction of the project.

“Wala ta mangutang aron sa pagtukood niining proyekto. The money comes from the city’s coffer,” Apura said.

The city has P308 million from the Internal Revenue Allotment and P387 million from the city budget.

Councilor Roger Montesclaros, chairman of the committee on land use, said the design of the structures will have a “taste of heritage.”

Carcar is known to many as “The Heritage Town of Cebu.” (FREEMAN)