ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council has unveiled its updated vision and mission statements, which it says are more in sync with its mandate of being the guardian of the emirate’s Vision 2030 strategy. It was just recently that UPC finalised its 2016-2020 Strategic Plan, which also formed the basis for the updating.
“We believe it now clearly explains the UPC’s role and what we do as we move towards Vision 2030,” said Falah Al Ahbabi, UPC’s Director-General. “This was an intricate process that involved many stakeholders, including employees, to ensure everyone understood why we were revising our vision and mission, and what it means both internally and to the people of Abu Dhabi.”
At Cityscape, UPC confirmed that approvals had been granted to 22 projects taking up a combined 700,000 square metres of gross floor area during the first quarter.
These include the Al Noor Tower on Al Reem Island, as well as the two-storey Al Falah Mall — with a gross leasable area of 30,000 square metres — on the mainland.
And in the Madinat Zayed area of Al Gharbia (the Western Region), the Shams Residential Development was given the green signal. It will feature 73 three-bedroom villas.
“Most of these projects would have received their construction permits by September 2015, and we expect to see them reach completion over the next two to three years,” Mohammad Al Khadar, Executive Director of Urban Development and Estidama (sustainability) at UPC, told ‘Gulf News’.
“Going forward in 2015, the majority of development is expected to happen on the various islands surrounding Abu Dhabi, but there will be some projects in Al Ain and Al Gharbia (Western Region).”
To date, the UPC’s Urban Development and Estidama Sector has delivered 454 projects and masterplans spanning 97.25 million square metres. The Estidama Pearl Rating System — which benchmarks sustainable development practices — has been applied to 11,881 villas and 921 buildings.
Since its setting up in 2007, UPC has devised framework planning for various long term projects, including the Plan Capital 2030, Plan Al Ain 2030, Plan Al Gharbia 2030 and Plan Maritime 2030.
