City dads defer bldg permit for AppleOne

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council has issued a resolution to hold in abeyance the issuance of a building permit to AppleOne Properties, Inc. after learning that it failed to secure first a development permit for its housing project in Banawa Heights.

In the approved resolution, Councilor Ma. Nida Cabrera said the housing developer applied for the required permits in a “piecemeal process.”

“As reported by the Office of the Building Official, only two constructed buildings out of the proposed 19 buildings has building permits,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera said that the developer started its site development without securing the required development permit from the Cebu City Planning and Development Office, which, she said, is a violation.

AppleOne Properties will be developing a high-end community housing comprising 19 buildings in Banawa, Cebu City.

With this, the City Council also requested OBO and the Zoning Board to look into the site development permit of the developer.

The suspension of the issuance of the building permit will be lifted until such time the developer could secure and present the development permit, said Cabrera, chair of the committee on environment.

The council’s move stemmed from the request of Mira Ting, a resident of Forest Hills in Banawa, to check on the development site of the firm due to the alleged potential hazards of its backfilling operation.

“I expressed my concern regarding the potential flooding on my property and the potential hazard that my family would experience due to the ongoing tampering and backfilling (approximately 9 meters high) operation of AppleOne Properties that hampers the flow of the rain water,” Ting said in a letter to the City Council.

Ting said she has raised the concern a year ago to the city government, but the developer still continued its “hazardous” operations.  (FREEMAN)