Jurong The Desirable

Source : The Straits Times, Apr 12, 2008

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) plans to gentrify Jurong, long associated with factories and warehouses, have a successful working model in Tampines. As with Tampines, a dispersal of commerce and smaller office operations from the city centre and its fringes is the pivot of the new regional plan. The URA is working to a time frame of up to 15 years to develop Jurong Gateway, a dedicated commercial and recreational district that has been evolving naturally around the Jurong East train station for some years. This is intended partly to relieve anticipated pressure on the Central Business District and the Marina Bay new downtown coming up, partly as a second-tier node for smaller businesses to operate at much lower cost. Jurong residents will be delighted with job opportunities coming so close to home. But office space becoming available in the next few years in the prime areas and Tampines is making property analysts nervous about a glut. This could be overstated. The risk of commercial space going a-begging is not to be waved aside as boom-bust cycles get shorter, but the experts have forgotten to factor in population growth.
This brings us to what has to be a key reason for regional urban planning - population distribution. National planners are working on a population of six million to seven million over the next two decades, mainly through immigration, as a planning assumption. The Jurong area and its surrounding catchment are at present home to one million people. With the recreational and lifestyle improvements envisioned under what the URA beguilingly dubs the Jurong Lake District plan, this area could turn out to be a desirable place to live in. The residential housing component of the plan calls for 1,000 new homes, all landed homes or condominiums. The surprise is that there is no known provision for HDB housing despite the ample land. There is also no provision for a regional hospital. The National University Hospital is admittedly in roughly the same geographic location, but it has reached its capacity. What about schools? These social services are prerequisites if Jurong were to function as a new population magnet.

As for the recreation planned, serious thought should go into making the most of the two green lungs, the Chinese and Japanese gardens. These are gems, but in need of polishing. They can be redesigned as parks along the lines of the Botanic Gardens, but not to be crammed with unsightly plastic attractions. All told, the mix of commerce, recreation, the nearness of the two national universities and their research cluster - all set in a green environment - could turn Jurong into a sought-after address when the programme matures.