Gazette all parcels to prevent abuse

NST-PROP 06/09/2003 By Nicholas Mun and G. Umakanthan
 

Land surrendered to local authorities have been given to other parties for development
 

In the wake of the Federal directive that all recreational land in housing schemes be gazetted and come under the supervision of State Secretariats, developers are also calling for non-recreational land surrendered to local authorites for intended amenities to be sanctioned as well.

Developers who obviously spoke on condition of anonymity said quite often, the land they had relinquished in their schemes for various agencies to build amenities such as schools, police and fire stations, markets and even places of worship had been "re-alienated to other developers".

A prominent developer based in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, said it is "common practice for local authorities to carve out certain sites from within a development plan for such uses as pre-condition for approval".

"However, after surrendering the sites, we find that they are not used for their intended purpose. Instead, they have been granted to another developer to build on," he claimed.

The developer argued that since the matter of gazetting recreational space has now received national attention, "the authorities might as well also address this issue and earmark those amenities that a local authority had specified in the development plan".

"This would prevent abuse of the land's purpose," he said.

He cited the example of a 15-acre site in  a residential scheme surrendered by his company for the construction of a school, but which was eventually developed into a stratified residential project by another company.

Echoing the proposal was International Real Estate Federation (Fiabci), Malaysian Chapter treasurer Yeow Thit Sang, who called for speedy action on gazetting and stringent enforcement to ensure that "land is indeed preserved for its designated use".

He gave the example of an open space in a part of Petaling Jaya: "The developer surrendered a site to the local council to run as Medan Selera (hawker centre) and car park, which it did for some time.

"However, it later alienated the land to another developer which built condominiums on it," he said, adding that land set aside for public amenities such as schools, police stations and even places of worship have suffered similar fate.

Yeow urged 'residents' associations to be watchful and to "initiate action to get the open space gazetted".

National House Buyers Association secretary-general Chang Kim Loong said the gazetting process should be done "in the shortest period of time after a site has been surrendered to local councils to avoid abuse".

He pointed out that such cases are not uncommon, and cited the example of Taman Batu Permai, located off the 5th mile of Jalan Ipoh in Kuala Lumpur, where an open space surrendered by the developer to the local authority for use as playground is now being threatened with development.

Chang said this dispute has been referred to the Ministry of Housing & Local Government for a solution.

"Residents must not be deprived of such amenities, especially with the undesirable lepak culture we are currently facing," he said