Urban Development, Land Use, and Spatial Planning for Settlements: Lessons Learned from Yogyakarta City, Indonesia

A discussion on urban development cannot be separated from a discussion of land and the environment. Property development must be carried out with a variety of socioeconomic and environmental considerations to prevent the paradoxical coincidence that Henry George observed between “progress and poverty.” The purpose of this article is to discuss urban development issues related to land use and the spatial planning of settlements by considering the case of dense settlements on the Code riverbank in the city center of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. By drawing on the work of Anne Haila, a leading land economist who visited the settlements on the Code riverbank, my aim is to determine how changing urban land tenure can transform an area facing the threat of flooding and evictions. Haila’s interviews with people who live in local apartments show that a change of orientation from commodifying urban land to viewing urban land as a commons helps to improve the social conditions of the urban poor, build urban community, and enhance wider urban ecological sustainability.