CONSISTENCY OF DGP'S

Abstract

Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority has, since 1989, completed 32 out of the 55 Development Guide Plans for the whole island. At this "half-way" juncture, it is important that some sort of review is done to evaluate the planning process. This paper attempts to see if the DGPs, when viewed together, are being consistently planned or, where there are inconsistencies, whether these can be explained by planning theories. The source of data for this paper is the 32 DGPs published by URA. The provision of six amenities, namely (1) land area (2) commercial area (3) primary school (4) secondary school (5) place of worship and (6) civic & community institution, are evaluated. For each provision, Land Value Theory, Central Place Theory and Organisation Hierarchy are tested to see if they can explain the differences in the amenities provisions. This study concludes that, with regard to commercial area provisions, both the Land Value Theory and Central Place Theory explain why the amount per dwelling unit is higher nearer to the CBD. However, for the other provisions, these theories do not fully explain the practices of the planners. As for the last category, the concept of Organisation Hierarchy and its problems seems evident in the provisions for most of the six amenities, with the exception of the educational institutions as their provision is by far the most consistent. As for the overall consistency, planners of Central and West regions are the most inconsistent, reflecting the common problems of bureaucracy, tail organisation hierarchy in the office of planners.