NO TRAFFIC STUDY, NO BUILD PERMIT: City council advances traffic impact assessment measure

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

ILOILO CITY – A proposed ordinance in the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Iloilo City seeks to fold traffic impact assessments (TIAs) into the permitting process for major development projects.

Under the measure filed by Councilor Sedfrey Cabaluna, a TIA would be required to secure a locational clearance, the document local government units issue to certify that a project conforms to the local zoning plan.

Those locational clearances are, in turn, submitted as part of a building permit application in Iloilo City.

The city council approved the committee report on the ordinance during its session on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

If approved, the ordinance would apply only to new developments, a category that covers new infrastructure, changes in use, and renovations, among others.

It would not cover every project. A capacity threshold would exempt smaller developments, such as small or medium-sized boarding houses and minor renovations, from the TIA requirement.

A traffic impact assessment is a technical study that estimates the vehicle and pedestrian volume a project will generate once it is operating, and identifies the measures needed to absorb it, among them road improvements, parking provisions, and redesigned access points.

Cabaluna said that while building and property developers typically submit TIAs, the documents are not actually required and are filed merely as notice.

“TIAs used to be a requirement for locational clearance, but only for compliance. It was only being received. In fact, in other [projects], these are not being required to submit,” the councilor told reporters on Wednesday.

He said embedding TIAs in the city’s legal building process would allow for more responsive, rather than reactive, traffic management, especially along major thoroughfares.

Cabaluna pointed to the Philippine cities of Pasig in Metro Manila and Naga in Camarines Sur, and to Melbourne in Australia, as examples.

“[I]f you would be building something, you would only need to have a building permit approved. But after that, we would have to deal with the resulting traffic. In the end, there will be complaints, and the city would have to react. We would be placing auxiliaries, buying traffic lights, widening sidewalks, [and] loading-unloading,” Cabaluna said.

“Any development, for that matter, should first submit their [TIA] for their locational clearance. There’s no building permit yet. So, from there, for example, they have the TIA, we can already discuss traffic mitigation measures,” he explained further.

Philippine cities issue locational clearances under local zoning ordinances, and they are among the prerequisites for a building permit.

The ordinance has not yet been enacted.