We focused on strengthening our city’s resilience to meet future needs and to sustain citizens’ quality of life. To this end, we adopted new innovations to enhance planning capabilities and to improve public services. We also worked with professionals to support creative ideas that enhance the urban environment. At the same time, we implemented initiatives to safeguard living amenity and the quality of our built environment.
We continued to tap data analytics and digital technology to understand our environment more comprehensively. This helps us to make more robust data-driven decisions, and create better planning outcomes to address the fast-changing needs of our city.
We inked a collaboration with Grab on data analytics for ride-hailing services. By gaining deeper insights into commuters’ travel patterns, we can potentially enhance land use and infrastructure planning to improve travel time and convenience for citizens.
Data analytics of commuters’ travel patterns help planners make better-informed decisions in planning
We created a 3D Underground Space Plan for Marina Bay, Jurong Innovation District and Punggol Digital District. It facilitates upfront planning of underground space, and makes underground planning requirements and uses transparent to developers and building owners. This improves the efficiency and effectiveness of using underground space, and frees up more surface land for people-centric uses.
The 3D Underground Space Plan shows specific locations of underground infrastructure, including rail networks, utilities and pedestrian links
The “Ask Jamie” chatbot was launched on the URA website to provide instant assistance to frequently asked questions from members of the public and professionals. We also enhanced the URA’s Home Buyers’ Guide to make it more user-friendly for homebuyers seeking information on uncompleted private homes.
With “Ask Jamie”, users no longer need to write in to URA for frequently asked questions
URA, together with LTA and HDB, have engaged a common service provider to enforce parking rules under the three agencies. Besides achieving larger economies of scale, it enables more efficient response to public feedback and better coordination in agencies’ enforcement efforts.
With the common service provider, members of the public no longer need to contact separate agencies to report parking offences – © Land Transport Authority
We continued to bring different stakeholders and their wealth of research and ideas together, to increase awareness and spark discussion on urban solutions that improve liveability. Our goal is to facilitate more collaborations between industry practitioners, academia and public agencies, to test-bed and implement practical innovations that improve our living environment.
Placing infrastructure and storage facilities underground frees up surface land for more liveable uses. Under the Urban Lab exhibition series, we showcased creative ideas for planning and developing underground space, to stimulate discussion and ideas among stakeholders for future developments.
Going underground expands our space resources by optimising land use, and frees up surface land for more people-centric uses
Urban Lab also brought together urban logistics innovations that are being explored and piloted by various stakeholders, to drive discussion and collaboration in new solutions that address challenges faced by the sector.
Some logistics firms have adopted transport management software to utilise their delivery fleet more efficiently
We formulated a regulatory framework for short-term accommodation in private homes which seeks to safeguard the amenity of local communities, and consulted the public and stakeholders for their views. Majority of Singaporeans supported the proposed regulations, but home-sharing platform operators felt they were too restrictive. As such, we will not be implementing the proposed regulations, and are continuing to monitor developments for short-term accommodation closely. We also worked with the community of the Tiong Bahru Conservation Area to regularise approved businesses in the estate. This provided clarity to residents and stakeholders on where businesses are allowed, and safeguards the residential amenity and vibrancy of the area.
There has since been more clarity on where businesses are allowed in the Tiong Bahru estate
To manage potential strains on infrastructure and safeguard the liveability of housing estates, and to provide a more balanced mix of unit sizes for homebuyers, we revised the guidelines for the maximum allowable dwelling units for non-landed private homes outside the Central Area. To provide residents with better provision of communal spaces, more optimally-sized balconies as well as more options of units with and without balconies, we also revised the Bonus Gross Floor Area (GFA) Balcony Incentive Scheme, and introduced a new Bonus GFA Scheme for indoor recreation spaces.
URA revised development control guidelines for private homes to address homebuyers’ evolving preferences and to safeguard living amenity (artist's impression)