Build marina park in vacant SRP (Sept 2006)

Cebu Daily News
Last updated 10:38am (Mla time) 09/13/2006

The five Cebu City councilors who went to the United States for almost a month recommended that the unfilled portion of the South Road Properties (SRP) be converted into a marina park....
The recommendation was included in the travel report of Vice Mayor Michael Rama and Councilors Jocelyn Pesquera, Procopio Fernandez, Sylvan Jakosalem and Rodrigo Abellanosa, who traveled around the US in July and August.

The trip cost some P680,000.

The group attended the Sister Cities International 50th Anniversary Conference in Washington D.C., dance sport competitions in San Francisco and the Pista sa Nayon in Seattle.

Before they returned to the country on August 15, Rama and Councilors Pesquera and Fernandez dropped by the Sparks Marina Park in Nevada.

In their report, they said that the 50-hectare unreclaimed Pond A at the SRP can be patterned after the park in Nevada which is a man-made lake filled by 1 billion gallons of water. It has depths varying from 60 feet to 120 feet.

Pond A, which is just across the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, is filled with murky water. It has the Mambaling River on its side.

The councilors said that Pond A can be like Nevada Marina Park and could host “fishing, man-made beaches, a sand volleyball court, numerous picnic tables, gazebos, a light trail system and an extensive landscape.”

The councilors also asked the City Planning and Development Officer (CPDO) to look into the possibility of putting up a senior citizen retirement village at the SRP.

“The City of Cebu should come up with a good senior (citizen) housing program so as to encourage expatriate(s) to live in the city,” the councilors' report read.

Citing a report by the US National Investment for Senior Living and the Long Term Industries, the demand for senior citizens housing is projected to increase from only 1.78 million units in 1996 to 3.7 million in 2030. /Reporter Doris C. Bongcac