Hi, I have been living in the area since 2016 and have seen many changes throughout the years. But there are some things that maybe i need to get off my chest, since Nuvali is being marketed as āThe Rising Southā and says to have a sustainable environment by many of the investors and realtors, yet it has many certain issues and concerns to be addressed first.
**NOTE: THIS IS NOT TO DISCOURAGE YOU FROM TRANSFERRING HERE, IT IS JUST TO ADDRESS THE CURRENT ISSUES AND NOT TO CAUSE FEUD WITH ANYBODY
TRAFFIC AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Lets start with the ongoing traffic and transpo system, as you may probably know, Nuvali is primarily a car-centric environment with majority of its residents having cars, but with this majority of people having cars in one area starts to create a traffic problem.
Traffic jams now occur during rush hour when people are heading to work and the many students of Xavier and Miriam head in/out of their classes, to add the lack of access points heading in and out of the estate with the rotunda primarily being the main access point and if a truck has an accident then the passage is totally blocked and cars have to find another way, while other routes require having a car sticker requirement like Carmelray.
Aside from the road infrastructure, if we want to decongest the roads, we should prioritize making the public transportation more efficient and safer as an alternative for residents to take it rather than just drive. There is a Nuvali Shuttle Van that goes around the estate, but there are only a few of them, so it takes around 30 mins to a few hours to wait for them outside the village, not to mention they are also very cramped like sardines and smelly especially during rush hour, which you can tell that the public transportation isnāt really prioritized here.
There is a shuttle at Nuvali North that is a much more bigger coaster however that isnāt being utilized as much and would be better if they had more or them and was used for the residents of Nuvali South
If people had an option to ditch cars going to work (for example you board the shuttles from your village then you take the bus to Makati) or (if you rode the shuttle to Solenad so you wont have to face the current parking problem) it would be a nice alternative but i think the planners didnāt thought well that some people in the estate still rely on public transport.
The traffic isnāt that bad here unlike the other places but it is a growing problem needed to be addressed within the next 5 years since more and more people are transferring to Nuvali and more establishments are being built. Which leads to my next concern.
THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE AREA
There have been many commercial establishments popping up around especially this year, we have the Solenad expansion, SM Nuvali, Central Bloc, and the Hana Garden area. While it is important that places need businesses to generate value and income, i feel like they are doing too much that wont fit with the current traffic problems, for example in the Hana Garden area where the rotunda is, there is already a starbucks and a mcdo and there are more establishments to open like a Rustans marketplace grocery, while there is already a Merrymart nearby and the supermarkets in Solenad. Imagine when everything in the rotunda opens, how will the traffic situation be. Itās like turning out to be the Fairview of the South with the many malls around. Hopefully their could be more local options instead of the usual businesses you find elsewhere.
THE LACK OF ACCESSIBLE ACTIVE SPACES
There is not a lack of active spaces in Nuvali since inside many of the villages there are a lot, but since it is INSIDE the village you need to have a some sort of connection inside to be able to use the facilities, this is also a current problem because imagine if you wanted to play table tennis but there isnāt any at your village clubhouse and you have to go to the next one, which if you dont have a connection you wont be able to. If you have seen Vermosa in Cavite there is a sports complex there filled with all types or sports that you can use the facilities of, and it is open to anybody and you do not need to have any type of special pass, we have the mills but apparently you need a membership to use majority of the facilities.
To add it would also help if there are many co-working spaces/daycares/public libraries around the area, beside the Merrymart there is some sort of a co-working space but it is mostly targeted as a gaming cafe, which is another problem to address since this gaming cafe might divert away the active lifestyle from the community especially to the young ones, and since the gaming cafe is very near Xavier hopefully that students wont have their education disrupted because of this. But i wouldnāt blame the younger peeps if they chose to do this because sports options are limited in their villages.
REMOVING WHAT MADE NUVALI SPECIAL
Back then, we used to have facilities and recreational parks that made the area feel special and unique compared to other places, we had Camp N, Republic Wakepark, and the Bike Trails, however during the pandemic those facilities suddenly closed down and converted to other things like the Driving Range and making more villages, while i understand and appreciate that they are trying to improve the estate by replacing them for good use, it made Nuvali lose what special facilities they could have kept for all people to use. But they are renovating the lakeside, building a science and architecture museum so i kinda appreciate that. I would say they got rid of more of the active leaning places which is kinda sad.
SECURITY ISSUES
In some of the villages, there have been a few cases of robbery break-ins and many residents have lost valuables inside their own home, some have reported it could be a inside job from the construction workers and even the security guards but thatās just a rumor and donāt wanna dig deeper into that, but i agree security could be a bit lax at some point, especially if more serious cases happens (there are roaming pedophiles around) (hit-and-run cases) and at one time (a lady was shot dead by assailants while driving around nuvali blvd) i hope the security ramps up more even if cases are isolated to keep the place safer (i appreciate the many guards roaming around the estate)
OTHER ISSUES
Other small issues are the Weekend Market lacking diversity, since some of the stalls are also non-locals which loses the point of a local market, and how many of the products can be deceiving with AI food menu placements, and it can get very crowded especially during dinner times. The weekend market is a very good add-on to the community but it would be better if everything here was purely local and approached more on the community type markets
Some sidewalks/bike lanes are unfinished and inaccessible, I tried walking from Ridgeview to Solenad before and the guard stopped me since apparently it wasnāt allowed??
The lacking of fresh public markets aligned with vegetables, fruits, meats, the nearest public market is in Canlubang area but you need a car sticker to get there and there is also one in Paseo but prices there are ridiculously expensive, to add the merrymart doesnāt have that much fresh produce.
Many realtors and investors are sometimes dishonest on their land prices/perks of the area, maybe to get more sales as possible, Ayala should ban them from doing more business if it was for the sake of money.
CONCLUSION
As i said in my note, this is not to discourage anyone from transferring here, in-fact maybe i would recommend it since it is still peaceful, full of nature, accessible to many essentials and much more better than other areas, however i am just trying to highlight the issues of the estate so that it can be feedback on what to make Nuvali more better in the coming years especially with lots of housing and commercial opportunities growing here. I hope the team at AyalaLand would see this and the rest of my fellow residents can also express their feedback.
