PROPOSALS FOR ACTION

Open space systems have become an integral part of town planning as a result of the intense demand for outdoor recreation and a growing concern for conservation. Open spaces have a crucial role in the urban life, since they act as breathing spaces in the dense urban fabric, or a place for recreation and retreat for the urban population. Open space systems not only act as recreation spaces but also vitalize the social and cultural activities of the town. They play a major role in controlling and managing the urban environment, health and climate. Hiking, picnicking, camping, fishing and pleasure driving are amongst the most popular recreational activities in Bhutan in addition to the regular sports like archery and soccer. Providing the spaces needed for these activities in close proximity to urban communities has become an urgent necessity in all urban centers.

Gelephu, because of its small scale and low intensity activities, currently does not have much defined open space reserved for specific recreation purposes. The play ground behind the Tsewang Goempa and the mass tree plantation taken by the Forest Department along the Trongsa Road are the only marked open spaces. However, the time is not far off, that Gelephu will also face the same fate as most urbanized centers are facing because of lack of open spaces.

As a growing town, Gelephu requires an organized open space system. A town has to provide a variety of open spaces, which satisfy the great differences in recreational demands between different groups of the society. The open space system in an urban area should therefore contain a great variety of facilities, suitable for all kinds of special interest groups: challenging and autonomous places for the teens: serene rural and quiet for older people; or crowded and active areas for those who want stimulus and companionship. Another important factor is the even distribution of these open spaces in the urban landscape. These recreational spaces should be distributed and located in close proximity to urban communities. Making this possible requires innovative ways of planning and managing the public open space system.

Managing and enhancing the natural landscape to fulfill the recreational requirements.
Rejuvenation and Revitalizing of the existing open spaces.

Considering the necessity for an open space system and the above mentioned factors, the proposed system provides different categories of open spaces.

Recreational Open Spaces
River and Natural Drains Protection Green Belt
Riverfronts
Institutional Open Spaces
Heritage Open Spaces
Green Pathways

Recreational open spaces will provide facilities, and the atmosphere, for active public recreation like outdoor sports, social gatherings, crowded and active areas for those who want stimulus and competition. These spaces include the proposed community parks at every village squares, ports grounds, health parks; children’s parks with a variety of children’s play equipments and amusement facilities. There will be a town central park, which will act as the “green heart” of the town, and a temporary exhibition ground to host exhibitions, public fairs and gatherings.

The main features of the proposed recreational open space system are the introduction of Community Parks in close proximity to the Village Squares and Urban Hubs. The Community Parks will act as active, outdoor, recreational centers for the respective Urban Villages / Urban Neighborhoods. They will also act as play grounds for certain schools. Each community park would house gardens, entertainment pavilions; children’s play areas, indoor and outdoor sports facilities.

The existing teak tree plantation area along the proposed Royal Boulevard can be planned as a Town Central Park with aviary. This would turn out to be a regional level recreation centre as well as make active use of the existing plantation area, which otherwise have a possibility of being encroached upon by urbanization. This can be clubbed with town level facilities like a town hall, library and with provision for varieties of children’s play equipment and facilities.

The long awaited higher level sporting facility in the town will come to fruition by the proposed stadium located to the west of the Gelephu-Trongsa highway near the existing re-settlement camp. This proposed Stadium- a National Open Space- is an inseparable part of the open space system in Gelephu . It forms the anchor point for the entire axial pattern of the proposed road network and will be the heart of the future Gelephu City over the next two decades . Apart from being a major recreational zone and sport centre, it is also envisioned as a part of the future urban hub proposed as a part of the structure plan, which will provide the necessary breathing and relaxing space just next to the high intensity activity zone. The inbuilt advantage of government owned lands surrounding the stadium would give high flexibility for the expansion of the stadium in the future to accommodate various growing sporting needs. This regional level stadium will house a great variety of sporting facilities including a foot-ball field, cricket ground and other sporting activities and will host regional level sporting activities.

The proposed open spaces, apart from accommodating facilities for active recreational use, will also reserve spaces for accommodating traditional and religious iconography like Prayer Flags, Chortens, and Prayer Wheels in the towns landscape.

As discussed earlier rejuvenating and revitalizing the existing open spaces within the town limits is one of the prime aims of the proposed Open Space System. This includes,

Activating the existing football ground by reserving the surrounding government lands for future social and community facilities development and developing it as a part of the national level open space system along the proposed Royal Boulevard.
Part pedestrianization and development of the open space in the Norkil Lam as a town level plaza and as a part of the Urban Core development.
Rejuvenating and developing un-claimed open areas of the town like the one near the Gelephu Rabdey into local level gardens and play areas.

All the existing and proposed open spaces will be linked with each other through a system of open spaces of different categories and hierarchies

River and natural drains protection green belts are the environmental green corridor defined by the flood risk areas in the proposed Environmental Enhancement Precincts plan. This green belt networks acts as the spine of the town open space system running through the town longitudinally along the river and transversely up along the natural drains. This green belt would be served by a major pedestrian movement system, which connects all the Urban Villages / Urban Neighborhoods and other precincts.

Though the purpose of this green belt network is to protect and manage the natural drainage patterns and its environments, the serene atmosphere of its green belt would act as a place of recreation and retreat from the crowded urban environment. This green belt would house jogging tracks, seating areas, meeting places, community parks, urban gardens, toddler play area, local level play areas and nurseries at specific places along its course. All the above mentioned activities would strictly follow the Development Control Regulations proposed for this precinct.

In Gelephu the Mao Chhu and Setikhare Chhu pose flood threats to the Gelephu town. The Mao Chhu is far more fatal than the Setikhare Chhu and has a past history of heavy flooding, because of which the old settlement of Gelephu has already been severely affected twice. But on the other hand river fronts are major assets to any settlement, since they provide open places for both active and passive recreational spaces. Considering the dual nature of these

spaces and for safety purposes this zone has been marked as a restricted and highly controlled development precinct in the structure plan.

The cost of river training along the entire bank of river is prohibitive under the present circumstances. However, apart from agricultural usage, these waterfronts can be active recreational open spaces, characterized by open spaces and activities which are temporary in nature and different from other parks and gardens proposed in the Gelephu town. In later stages while river protection work is carried out, parts of land can be reclaimed and put into non intensive recreational uses and development of tourist attractions such as water parks, outdoor restaurants, golf courses, outdoor recreation and play grounds, drive in theatres, children roller skating strips, cycle tracks, mela and exhibition grounds etc. The area to the north of the fisheries is an appropriate location for this activity, which can also be clubbed with the tourist related facilities and attractions. These areas can be developed as a base-camp for tourists entering Bhutan visiting the upper Himalayan ranges. These activities also give alternative development possibilities to the local people within the domain of a restricted development area. The existing fisheries and poultry research centre could also be developed as a part of the development with training, education, exhibitions and vacation camp facilities. The river front of the Setikhare Chhu could be developed into a promenade with avenue plantation and street furniture’s in the coming decades.

Just as open spaces can be classified into active and passive uses; similarly they could be classified as private, public and institutional. In the recent times the concept of open spaces under institutional ownership or private management has also been considered in the entire summation of the open space system. They might have restricted access but are undeniable assets in the urban fabric. In highly urbanized centers around the world the institutional precincts have a restriction on total allowable built-up area and ground coverage area, thus assuring that they remain an integral part of the urban open space system over the long run. These institutions could include schools, colleges, universities, research and training centers, etc. In Gelephu the primary and secondary schools, the proposed college, the fisheries, etc could form a part of the open space system.

Buddhist society is spiritual in nature and visiting religious places is certainly an integral part of daily life. In fact this is the very aspect of the society which differentiates the settlement from the others. The religious sites are associated with several religious and social events. These are the places which provide specific identity to the settlement. Most of the time, these places are located in strategic position of the settlement, proclaiming its importance in the social and cultural life of the people. Structure plan will encourage the interaction of such places with rest of the town.

Heritage Open Spaces are the open spaces proposed in the immediate surroundings, or in the open spaces associated with cultural and heritage structures, national monuments and important religious buildings. The proposal will develop and enhance these spaces to ameliorate the heritage structures and their precinct, which will also act as a public open space. The proposal would also build up the image of the town as the district headquarters.

The main Heritage Open Space existing in the Gelephu town is the Gelephu Rabdey and its surrounding, which is also the place for festivals and other religious celebrations like Tshechu. All other religious structures within the Municipal Boundary, including the Nimalung Drasthang, Tarpolling Guru Lhakhang, Tsewang Goempa, Prayer Wheel pavilions in the Norkil Lam will be proposed with mandatory open space around them. These proposed open spaces will help in enhancing the importance of the structure in the town landscape and will also help in maintaining the serenity of the structure. These open spaces will reserve spaces for accommodating religious features like Prayer Flags, Chortens, Prayer Wheels and Mani Walls.

The proposed open space system within Gelephu could be divided into three major zones, based on the characteristics of the proposed open spaces, and to ease the management and maintenance of the open spaces.

This zone covers the entire Mao Chhu front boundary of the town. This is a major flood prone zone and the type of open spaces covered under it would be a golf course, out door restaurants, less intensive sports and recreational activities, tourism related developments like water parks, hospitality centers, fisheries and agricultural belts. River protection and training is an essential component for any kind of development to take place in this green zone.

This zone would lie in the heart of the town with properly aligned trees on both sides of the road and would house major institutions along with the existing schools. The existing teak wood plantation area with the proposed aviary and children’s park, the existing food ball ground with the proposed community level development in its surroundings will form as a part of this green belt. Thus, this would be a major institutional green belt in the heart of town.

This zone will form the western boundary of the planned Gelephu town. The three main components include the National Stadium, College and the river side Green Belt along the Aipole Chhu tributary.

The natural storm water channel green belts will follow the identified natural storm water drainage course running in an east-west direction transversely connecting the above mentioned green zones at regular interval. This zone will house community level parks, toddler play areas and other local level recreational features together with walk ways and cycle ways.

These green zones form the basic skeleton of the open spaces network in the town and would be connected with each other by pathways and green belts running across these zones transversely. Thus, the proposed Gelephu Structure Plan has a properly balanced open space system in an evenly distributed pattern.

The proposed open space systems are interlinked and connected to other land use precincts by means of the “pedestrian movement system”. Essentially these pedestrian pathway systems are inseparable parts of the proposed open space system. In fact these pedestrian paths are also a type of open space; most of the social interaction happens on the pathways, as opposed to public open spaces. The proposed pathway system in Gelephu can be classified into three levels of pathway networks:

In the case of Gelephu the river side pathway will also act as the Town Peripheral pathway system, while the natural storm water drainage channel pathways act as the interconnecting pathway system joining the various Urban Villages / Urban Neighborhoods to each other. The Royal Boulevard, along with its institutional zones and hospitality functions will act as a major transverse pathway connecting the Town Peripheral pathways in north-south direction.

The natural storm drainage channel pathways will also act as the boundary line for the natural drain side green belt system. The entire system of pathways is networked to link and serve the open space system, major institutions, schools, urban nodes, urban village settlements, heritage sites and other wilderness areas. The proposed pathway system will also consist of cycle tracks and jogging tracks all along its network.

It is proposed that planting and maintaining, indigenous tree species of the region within the compound of any urban development in the municipal limit should be made compulsory. As a thumb rule, one tree space per every hundred square meter of plot area could be considered. This apart from maintaining urban greenery in the town’s landscape will also help in creating a micro-climatic region within the town. It is also proposed that strict penalties both in terms of monetary and legal aspect should be imposed on development which does not comply with the proposal.