CLUP in the Philippines: the comprehensive land use plan and what it means for your lot

A CLUP, a comprehensive land use plan, is a city’s or municipality’s plan for how its land will be used: where homes, shops, farms, industry, roads and protected areas go over the coming years. On its own it is a plan. The zoning ordinance that carries it out is what decides, lot by lot, what may be built.

This guide is read from the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160), kept in this site’s records with its source. How a CLUP is prepared is set out in national guidebooks, which this site has not read, so it does not cover the planning steps.

What the Local Government Code says

Point	What the law says	Where
Who prepares it	Local government units continue to prepare their comprehensive land use plans, enacted through zoning ordinances	RA 7160, Section 20(c)
What it is for	The plans enacted through zoning ordinances are “the primary and dominant bases for the future use of land resources”	Same
What it must weigh	The requirements for food production, human settlements and industrial expansion	Same
A municipality	The sangguniang bayan adopts the CLUP, in coordination with the approved provincial plan	Section 447(a)(2)(vii)
A city	The sangguniang panlungsod adopts it; a component city coordinates with the approved provincial plan	Section 458(a)(2)(vii)
The province	The sangguniang panlalawigan reviews the CLUPs and zoning ordinances of its component cities and municipalities and adopts a provincial plan	Section 468(a)(2)(vii)
Zoning	The sanggunian enacts integrated zoning ordinances “in consonance with the approved comprehensive land use plan”	Sections 447(a)(2)(ix) and 458(a)(2)(ix)

The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development sets the planning and zoning standards CLUPs follow, under RA 11201, as the RA 11201 guide explains.

Reclassifying farmland

Section 20 lets a city or municipality, by an ordinance passed after public hearings, reclassify agricultural land for other uses: when the land is no longer economically feasible for farming, as determined by the Department of Agriculture, or when it has substantially greater value for residential, commercial or industrial use, as determined by the sanggunian.

Local government	Most agricultural land it may reclassify, counted on its total agricultural land area when the ordinance passes	Where
Highly urbanized and independent component cities	15 percent	Section 20(a)(1)
Component cities and first to third class municipalities	10 percent	Section 20(a)(2)
Fourth to sixth class municipalities	5 percent	Section 20(a)(3)

The President may allow more when public interest requires it, on NEDA’s recommendation (Section 20(b)). Land distributed to agrarian reform beneficiaries is not affected; its conversion stays under Section 65 of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, RA 6657 (Section 20(a) and (e)). Where a national agency must approve a reclassification, failing to act on a complete application within three months counts as approval (Section 20(d)).

What it means for your lot

• What you may build. The zoning ordinance places your lot in a zone, residential, commercial, agricultural or another, and the zone decides what kind of building is allowed. A house on land zoned agricultural, for example, is a different question from a house in a residential zone.
• How you find out. The city or municipal planning and development office keeps the CLUP and the zoning map, and issues the zoning certification or locational clearance a building permit application usually needs. The building permit guide covers where that fits.
• Before you buy. A lot’s zone, and whether a road, a flood channel or a protected area is planned across it, is worth checking before you sign. The guide to choosing a lot covers the rest of that check.
• Setbacks and density. Many of the numbers people expect from the building code, such as how close to the boundary a house may stand, sit in the zoning ordinance instead. The National Building Code guide says which questions PD 1096 leaves to zoning.

Where this practice fits

We check a lot’s zoning before design starts, so the house is drawn for what the land allows. Our permit and documentation assistance service covers the clearances and the permit folder.