■ SM SEASIDE MAY GET A BREAK, BUT MAYOR OSMEÑA SETS CONDITIONS

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña will not pursue closing SM Seaside City and all its stores, but only if its management finishes correcting its violations on time. “If they finish it on time, fine, (we will not pursue the closure order). But if they sit on it again... when you commit a violation of the zoning law, it’s one of the reasons why I can cancel your business permit,” he warned. According to the City’s engineers, the mall did not comply with the mandatory setback for lands abutting a road-right-of-way. The developer only started correcting its violations two months after Osmeña warned SM that he will cancel their business permit.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña may reconsider closing all the stores owned and operated by SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI) in its mall at the South Road Properties (SRP).

That, if the mall’s management can finish correcting the construction violation of SM Seaside City.

“If they finish it on time, fine (we will not pursue the closure order). But if they sit on it again... when you commit a violation of the city zoning law, it’s one of the reasons I can cancel your business permit,” he said.

Last January, Osmeña warned that he will cancel the building permit of SM Seaside City since SMPHI failed to correct the mall’s violation last December, which the developer promised.

Their violations include the failure to comply with the mandatory setback for lands abutting a road-right-of-way.

The encroachment of the 30-hectare SM Seaside Complex on the SRP road was first discovered last Nov. 10, 2015 during an inspection conducted by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 Chief Legal Officer Brando Ray Raya together with the agency’s geodetic engineers.

Violation

DPWH had said that the mall was within the 10-meter road lot from the Cebu South Coastal Road.

Osmeña wants SMPHI to move its cube structure to clear the road of any development.

According to the mayor, SMPHI sent him a letter weeks after he made a warning against them, saying that they do not have to clear the setback of their development.

“If they wan’t to play that game, I’m going to close down their stores,” Osmeña said.

Section 804 of the National Building Code provides that for commercial, industrial, institutional and recreational buildings along newly developed thoroughfares, the required minimum setback for land with widths of 30 meters and above is eight meters.

In last year’s letter addressed to the Office of the Building Official, SMPHI had said it will correct the mall’s violation after the peak season, or in February.

The developer started correcting its violation this month.

Osmeña said he wants SM Seaside’s error corrected so that future developments in the city will not commit the same mistake, and so that future road widening projects will not be affected.

“Aside from the fact that I hate them, which is true... there’s another compelling reason. If we do not do anything about it, no one ever will. The traffic is already getting bad. At some point, we have to widen the road so let’s just do it now,” he said. /