Dagupan business district to undergo urban renewal
THE CITY HALL under a Fernandez administration has started drawing up a blueprint for an urban renewal program in Dagupan’s central business district aimed at keeping the city competitive with other fast-rising metropolitan areas in northern Luzon and restore the downtown area’s old grandeur.
Mayor Belen Fernandez said the program will be launched as soon as the ongoing rehabilitation and upgrading of A.B. Fernandez Avenue is completed, which is expected to arrest the perennial flooding in the area.
Meanwhile, Fernandez said if Dagupan City succeeds in recovering the MC Adore property, she plans on rehabilitating and converting it into the new city hall as initially intended.
The urban renewal program, being prepared by a team led by City Planning and Development Coordinator Romeo Rosario, has been welcomed by the business community in the downtown area.
Fernandez said the shop owners have committed to renovate the facades of their buildings in keeping pace with the urban renewal program.
Some of these establishments have begun raising their floor level to align with the elevated road.
The downtown area of Dagupan, which used to be the major commercial hub in Region 1, suffered major damage from the powerful July 16, 1990 earthquake. Athough the infrastructure, including roads and buildings, it never fully recovered its old luster.
“We need to restore our downtown area because it is here where all businessmen of Dagupan started,” said Fernandez who leads her family’s CSI Group of Companies, considered one the most successful enterprises in Northern Luzon.
The upgrading of A.B. Fernandez Avenue by more than one foot began in March this year. It includes the reconstruction and redesigning of its drainage canals and sidewalks and the rearrangement of existing lampposts.
The project is funded by about P50 million from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) through the efforts of Fourth District Rep. Gina de Venecia.
Phase 1 of the project is now almost complete but work in restoring the sidewalks is reportedly delayed because the Dagupan City Water District has not completed its work in laying its water pipes.
MC ADORE
The MC Adore case is pending before the sala of Regional Trial Court Judge Mervin Jovito Samadan of Branch 40 who has previously handed a decision declaring as null and void the resolution passed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod authorizing Mayor Benjamin Lim to negotiate the sale of MC Adore.
A motion for reconsideration was filed by Acting City Legal Officer Roy Laforteza but this is being questiond by the Fernandez administration since it was filed without the acting-mayor’s authority.
AMB ALC Holdings, which bought the property at P119 million, has also filed a petition to intervene in the case.
“I hope this case will soon be over,” said Fernandez, adding that if the property could not be turned into the new city hall, it should instead be re-bidded and sold at a higher price. “At least P250 million,” she added.
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