Tuesday June 23, 2009

Liu: Small part of Subang Ria Park can be developed

Reports by THO XIN YI and JADE CHAN at the Subang Jaya Draft Local Plan public hearing

THE Selangor state government will take steps to protect the interests of the landowner and the public with regards to the Subang Ria Park, said state local government, studies and research committee chairman Ronnie Liu.

“If we can convince the private company that owns the park land to keep most of it as a public amenity, we won’t say no to having a small part of it developed,” he said.

“It will be crazy for the state government to acquire it as the land cost for the 29.14ha park is estimated to be more than RM100mil.”

He said this at the second public hearing for the Subang Jaya Draft Local Plan yesterday which was chaired by state housing, building management and squatters committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad.

According to Iskandar, other issues raised during the hearing included the need for a crematorium and places of worship for non-Muslims, requests for a hospital, health clinics and activity centre for senior citizens, a link road between Taman Saujana Putra and Taman Lestari Putra as well as traffic congestion.

“Subang Jaya is a matured township but was planned without adequate amenities to cater to its large population,” said Liu.

“Most of the areas under the Subang Jaya Municipal Council’s (MPSJ) jurisdiction are already saturated with development, so the shortfalls have to be addressed and located in areas like Putra Heights.”

The Buddhist Committee for the MPSJ Draft Local Plan, an umbrella group representing several Buddhist associations under the MPSJ’s jurisdiction, had highlighted the need for an additional provision of 38 Buddhist temples to cater to the community, as only one piece of land in Puchong Utama had been allocated in the draft local plan for this purpose.

“We urge the MPSJ to adhere to the Selangor Town and Country Planning Department’s guidelines in relation to the provisions for building places of worship for non-Muslims, which is one place of worship for every 2,600 devotees or 5,000 residents.

“This is to cater to the spiritual and religious needs of the estimated 239,533 Buddhist devotees out of the 561,918 residents in the MPSJ area,” said committee chairman Loka Ng.

The projection is based on the 2008 demographic figures derived from the Selangor Economic Planning Unit and Department of Statistics.

On the next step, Iskandar said all the feedback and objections would be compiled over the next three months by the State Planning Department, which is the hearing’s secretariat or the hearing committee.

“The secretariat will look into the comments to decide if these are relevant or not, then discuss and include them in the draft local plan.

“If the objection cannot be accepted, the secretariat will call the complainant to discuss the issue again on a case-by-case basis.

“The local plan will then be gazetted sometime early next year,” said Iskandar.