Tools for Implementing the

Comprehensive Land Use Plan

Zoning
Real Property Taxation
Eminent Domain Proceedings
Public Investment Programming
Guided Private Investments
Co-Management Principle

I. ZONING
It is the guide to the proper location of activities in space.

The zoning ordinance is the principal instrument for

implementing the CLUP.
The authority to regulate the use of property was devolved
to the LGUs through RA 7160. The Code directs the
legislative bodies to prescribe reasonable limits and
restraints on the use of property within their territorial
jurisdiction. The basis for prescription of reasonable limits
in land used is to be the CLUP and the instrument for
enforcing those limits and restraints according to the CLUP
is the zoning ordinance.

Organizing Framework for New Zoning

Land Use
Private
Categories/Zoning Domain
Districts

Public
Domain

Ancestral
Domain

Protected Areas
Settlement Areas

Infrastructure Areas
Production Areas
Zoning Compatibility Matrix - lists all possible land-use
activities and indicates whether each activity is permitted in a
given zone, without, with certain, or under special conditions.

II. Land Taxes

Basic Real Property Tax a tax not on the use of the

land but on the privilege of owing it.

Special Education Fund additional one percent tax
on real property accruing to the SEF is similarly a
revenue-raising measure the proceeds of which is
exclusively for the maintenance and operation of
public schools. Although the SEF is applied on all
taxable property, it cannot be considered as a general
tax due to the specific purpose for which it is intended
hence, a special levy.

 Idle land tax an additional imposition of five percent

on the assessed value of lands considered as idle.

Agricultural land is deemed idle if it has an area of not
less than one hectare and one half of which is
unutilized for agriculture.
Urban lands should have an area of not less than 1000
sq.m. One half of which remains unutilized or
unimproved.
Rationale: To promote efficient and optimum utilization
of land for the overall benefit of society as well as to
curb the practice of speculative holding of land in
anticipation of windfall profits from timely sales.

 Special Benefit Levy an assessment on lands that are

specially benefited by public works projects, whether

these be new construction or improvements on
existing ones. It allows local governments to recover as
much as sixty percent of the cost of the project from
contributions by the owners of the lands that stand to
benefit tremendously as a result of the project in the
form of increased land values.
Rationale: it is derived from the principle of social
justice and equity which requires that anyone who is
made worse off by an action of society deserves to be
compensated and anyone who becomes better off by
that same action has to return the undeserved benefit
to society.

III. Eminent Domain Proceedings

Another power of the State to deal with private property

owners is the power to take back private property for public

purposes.
The transfer of privately owned land into the hands of local
governments is an important planning tool. Local
governments must be able to use their eminent domain
powers to acquire more private property for land banking
purposes.
Land banking is the advanced acquisition and
consolidation of lands identified in the comprehensive
land use plan as areas for future urban expansion. The
justification is implied in the expanded purpose for the
exercise of eminent domain as mandated by the Local
Government Code.

IV. Public Investment Programming

Investment in public infrastructure and facilities is a

powerful tool to shape local development in

accordance with the chosen urban form in CLUP. It
improves the quality of public services and at the same
time it influences private sector investment.
The CLUP is a rich source of programs and projects to
be included in the investment program. Public
investment programming is an intermediate process
that links the plan to the local budget.

 The choice of programs and projects to be included in

the investment program should be guided by the

following principles:
1. Put emphasis on asset-performing expenditures.
2. Enhance the strategic nature of public investments.
3. Strengthen the spatial basis of the investment
program.
4. Limit projects to those owned by the LGU.
5. Improve local fiscal management.
6. Stress on participatory, consultative process.

V. Guided Private Investments

Another authority-lever available to the LGU is the

mandate to put in place measures to attract private

investments.
The authority to guide private investments is given to
the Local Development Council. Such guidance could
take the form of incentives to promote the inflow and
direction of private investment capita. Such incentives
in turn consist of tax breaks, selective subsidies, and
reducing transaction costs like the setting up of one
stop-shops and eliminating bureaucratic red tape and
graft and corruption.

VI. Co-Management of other Domains

Local governments and the national government are

directed by RA 7160 to act as co-managers or the national

territory and patrimony.
In the spirit of co-management, the LGU can use the CLUP
as the basis for crafting a memorandum of agreement or
similar instrument with the DENR or its relevant service
bureaus to jointly manage all natural resources. Similarly,
LGUs may forge agreements with the National Commission
for Indigenous Peoples representing specific indigenous
groups to share responsibility in the planning and
management of ancestral domains located within the
territorial jurisdiction of the LGU.