PAM council member Mustapha Kamal Zulkarnain said this lack of connectivity resulted in wasted space and dampened KL’s vision to become a world-class sustainable city as stated in its 2008 KL Structure Plan.
“We have public spaces such as parks. Beautiful big parks like Titiwangsa Park, Tasik Permaisuri Park and the one at Dataran Merdeka.
“But the problem with all these parks is that they are not linked to the areas around them, like a route to go somewhere. You only go there as a destination,” he said on the sidelines of the World Class Sustainable Cities Conference here today.
Taking New York’s Central Park as an example, Mustapha said organised developments should be built around the parks so the public can fully utilise them by walking through the park to get to another location.
“Central Park in New York connects the northern, southern, eastern and western areas of the city.
“So there is a lot of traffic and people actually going through the park to get from point A to point B,” he said.
“The KL Petronas Twin Towers city park is also a success. Why? Because it connects people in the golden triangle. We need that kind of organised development in other parts of KL city.”
Earlier, Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) Lifestyle Quarter managing director Stuart Mendel presented his paper on the project, targeted to start its development phase in 2020.
“Situated in TRX City, the Lifestyle Quarter is around 17 acres (6.9ha) in size. TRX Lifestyle Quarter will leverage on KL connectivity.
“To develop the area, we will leverage on the flow of the city and this will create sustainable development for the public.”
With a forecast gross development value of RM8 billion, the project is expected to be completed around 2025.