Commission compiles review of city planning laws

THE Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) is compiling the final report on the review of laws on city planning and urban development for submission to the Government in November.
This follows the vetting of the draft report by key government stakeholders at a seminar in Port Moresby last Friday.
“The seminar is one of the final processes in terms of review exercise,” CLRC secretary Dr Mange Matui told participants.
The stakeholders were taken through the draft report which contains legal, policy and administrative recommendations that are based on the findings from the eight provinces and relevant agencies that CLRC consulted.
The commission will also be incorporating some of the suggestions the stakeholders made at the seminar regarding the proposed recommendations and the issues in the review before finalising the report to Parliament through Slosh (social, law and order and justice sector) and the National Executive Council.
Dr Matui said they had not drafted or amended the relevant laws yet, adding that this was a separate process in which the key stakeholders would be consulted again for their input in the draft law.
“The report and bill will go through a different processes and come to the State Solicitor for clearance.”
He said the review was timely, especially when relevant legislations dated back to the 1960s, which contributed to fundamental socio-economic issues affecting city planning and urban development.
The aim of the review was to consider the extent of the relationship between urban local governments and the provincial governments under the Organic Law on Provincial Governments and Local Level Governments 1995, the informal sector development and Control Act 2004 and how it affected the economy and management of cities and urban centres, the relevance of the Cities Act 1971 and other related issues and make recommendations to the Government.