Yeoh submits report to MACC on violations in KL City Plan

Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh today submitted a list of violations in the Kuala Lumpur City Plan (KLCP) 2020 to the MACC.

In a Facebook posting last night, she said: “I went to MACC Putrajaya and submitted my comments (on the violations) on behalf of the Segambut constituency.”

She called on MACC to investigate these developments and the officials involved. “This was my election promise to my voters.”

The Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020 will be gazetted before mid-November, Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad had said two weeks ago.

He said the plan would also be presented to the public on Nov 12 along with a list of previous violations in development.

"The plan will be presented as discussed and agreed upon through public hearings held from 2008 to 2012.

"As it (the plan) had not been gazetted previously, it could be violated quite easily... (for example), where a particular piece of land was meant to be developed into a public park, something else is done with it instead. This is why we have included the list of violations," Khalid had said.

No legal basis

Some of the other violations of the KL Plan under the former government are:

• Development orders were inconsistent with recommendations made by KL Structure Plan hearing committee;
• Illegal development orders approved by previous government officials;
• Past approvals were not in line with sustainable development; and
• Development of Kuala Lumpur was carried out haphazardly.

A town planning legal expert and former chairperson of the Bukit Gasing Development watchdog group, Derek Fernandez, said that there was “no legal basis for the amendments to KL City Plan 2020”.

According to him, the correct approach is to gazette the 2012 finalised plan which had gone through the public hearing process and the one the hearing committee had decided on irrespective of all the subsequent violations.

“These violations or deviations can be compiled into a list or addendum for the sole purpose of showing deviations from the plan on the ground and can never be part of the gazetted plan," said Fernandez.

“This list or addendum should be subject to later investigation to see if laws or good governance practices had been breached and ultimately determine if it should be reviewed. It is irrelevant whether there are buildings already on these sites," he added.