Save KL Coalition (SKL) deputy chairman M Ali said the city plan would still be able to stop the approval of future development projects.
Speaking to FMT, Ali said right now, the situation was a “free for all” where anyone could apply for a development project and it would be approved.
“Although some may say that this plan is no longer useful since 2020 is approaching, with it in place, at least we have something that can prevent unnecessary development projects.
“But what’s most important is that we are asking the government to revert to the 2008 plan, before changes were made in 2013, 2015 and recently.
“It doesn’t matter if it does not include the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). The city plan is still useful to stop or review ‘deals’ that were previously approved but were not done properly,” Ali said.
It was reported that SKL had requested for the city plan to be gazetted within the next six to eight months.
Ali said the gazetting of the city plan should be made a main priority, and there should no longer be any delay.
“Now we are waiting, maybe for six months, and if the city plan is approved by the end of the six months, 2018 is gone.
“We will only have one more year, but the plan will last for the whole of 2020.
“But that is if they approve it in six months’ time,” he added.
He also reminded the government that it needed to start drafting a revised plan that would include the TOD.
“They must start now, not wait until 2020 ends and then only think of what is next.
“The fact that this city plan has not been gazetted has caused a lot of agony to residents in various residential areas, when greenery is eroded by development projects and concerns of overdevelopment are increasing,” he said.
Ali said an example of a development project that could have been prevented was the land swap deal in Bangsar between SP Setia Bhd and the previous government.
“The deal was to swap a piece of land in Setia Alam for the land where the National Institute of Health is currently situated (Jalan Rumah Sakit-Jalan Bangsar).
“This piece of land is prime land that belonged to the government, and it is connected to one of the last few green lungs.
“We are worried that once the developer is allowed to go into the area, there will be no control of what they will build. Soon there will be no more Federal Hill,” Ali said, referring to the 21.04 hectare stretch in Bangsar.
He said another development that should not have taken place was the Bangsar-Damansara elevated link.
“We found out that the elevated highway is now being built to serve the Pavilion Damansara Heights development. But the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has forked out RM130 million and Pavilion-Malton only contributed RM11 million to the project that is worth RM211 million shared by DBKL, Pavilion and UKAS (Public-Private Partnership Unit).
“Why is DBKL forking out so much of the people’s money to build a highway that is only servicing a private development?” he asked.
The project in question is expected to be completed by 2020.
Critics said the highway would only add to the congestion in the area instead of helping to ease traffic.
SKL is made up of KL residents advocating sustainable growth and development. Previously known as the Coalition to Save Kuala Lumpur, SKL spearheaded a unified citizen’s engagement with DBKL in 2008 on the Draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020.