Development Concept Map and Structure Plan

Municipal Districts

To effectively carry out the provisions of its Comprehensive Land Use Plan 2016-2030, the municipality was divided into four (4) Municipal Districts derived from its subwatershed boundaries as follows:

1. The South East Municipal District (Rosario River Subwatershed);
2. The East Municipal District (Lawaye River Subwatershed);
3. The North East Municipal District (Malaquing Ilog River Subwatershed); and
4. The West Municipal District (Calumpang River Subwatershed).

Municipal District Map, Municipality of Rosario, Batangas, 2016-2030

Development Concept Map and Structure Plan: 2016-2030
The Development Concept and Structure Plan of the Municipality of Rosario, Batangas:

• followed the context of the overall spatial development strategy enunciated in National Framework for Physical Planning (NFPP): 2001-2030, 
• it is aligned with the Region IV-A framework known as the Center/Cluster-Corridor-Wedge planning approach or the Calabarzon Quadrant and Cluster Framework Concept (Courtesy of Palafox Associates), and 
• it is guided by the Batangas DRR/CCA Enhanced-Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plan (PDPFP) 2014-2022.

Concept Map and Structure Plan: Municipality of Rosario, Batangas, 2016-2030

There are, however, some innovations incorporated here and there since this CLUP: 2016-2030 has adopted the ridge-to-reef or integrated watershed ecosystems management framework to emphasize the interrelationship between the upland, lowland and inland water (rivers and creeks) ecosystems. In addition, the principles of landscape ecology also found their way in the spatial development strategy of the municipality.

Attention was given to the concept of connectivity defined as the spatial continuity of a habitat or cover type across a landscape; as well as the corridor, which is the relatively narrow strip of a type that differs from the areas adjacent on both sides. These concepts are important in understanding the spatial strategy developed for the four subwatershed areas, namely: the Rosario River Subwatershed (South East District), the Lawaye River Subwatershed (East District), the Malaquing Ilog River Subwatershed (North East District) and the Calumpang River Subwatershed (West District).

For continuity and convergence, this is where the elements of the previous plan CLUP: 2000-2010 integrates with the framework of the current plan CLUP: 2016-2030. Development strategies for the municipality of Rosario, within the planning period are anchored on the following four policy areas:

1. Prioritization of economic development in the sectors of agriculture, industry and recreational tourism.
2. Managing economic impacts through enhancement of commerce and trade.
3. Distribution of the benefits of developments through effective and efficient delivery of adequate and upgraded basic social services as well as provision of infrastructure support facilities, utilities and service.
4. Principle of sustainable development with emphasis on preserving biodiversity as a basic environmental concern is being considered in these strategies.

Corollary and in line with the regional development strategy which identified the functional role of Rosario as the center of the Batangas-Quezon Agri-based Cluster in Region IV-A, while the provincial development strategy recognized Rosario being a large municipality that belongs to the Agri-Tourism Growth Cluster envisioned in the Provincial Physical Framework Plan – the municipality adopts the strategy of Mixed-use Balanced Agri-industrial Modernization and Biodiversity for Ecologically Sustainable Tourism Development (MBA-BEST).

The MBA-BEST planning framework, on best effort basis, integrated the Strategic Agriculture and Fishery Development Zones (SAFDZs), the subwatershed basins, and the identified conduit of these zones, which are the road right of ways (RROW) or transit corridors in the formulation of its land use plan.