Metro

Tuesday July 14, 2009

Green lung maintained at Subang Ria park

By THO XIN YI


THE Subang Ria Park will be upgraded and handed back to the people – with a condition that 22% of the park goes to building low-density homes.

Sime Darby Property Bhd, the owner of the 29.39ha park which has a 99-year leasehold title, will spend between RM15mil and RM20mil to enhance the park to benefit Subang Jaya residents who wanted a green lung in their neighbourhood.

The plan was revealed to the media yesterday by Sime Darby Property managing director Datuk Tunku Putra Badlishah Tunku Annuar at Sime Darby Convention Centre in Bukit Kiara.

Better place: A bird’s eye view of the landmarks.

Some 74% of the total area (21.73ha of land area and water body) will be retained as a recreational park. Badlishah said Sime Darby has laid out suggestions to improve the park and facilities, which include the construction of an outdoor amphitheatre, 305 parking lots, toilets, bicycle track, car park, kids play area and a dry swale.

The company’s research and development innovation (property division) vice-president II Sufian Abdullah said night-lighting and CCTV cameras will be installed with security monitoring as a safety measure for park users.

Judging at the current state of the dilapidated park, Badlishah hoped the upgrade plan would appeal to the people, especially those who had opposed to the Sime Darby’s development plan.

“People often overlook the fact that this is a privately-owned land. Sime Darby has paid a total of about RM7mil as quit rent and assessment (commercial rate) for the past 13 years, and yet we didn’t put a gate and demand charges from the public to enter the park.

“Now, we have come out with this plan and hoping to achieve a win-win situation. We will give a better park for the people to enjoy, while we will have to develop part of the park to cover the upgrading cost,” he said.

In July 2007, Subang Jaya residents had strongly opposed to the then development plan, citing various reasons like density, traffic congestion and negative impact of development.

Sime Darby then withdrew from developing the area.

Now, they have amended their plan to build a new low-density residential area with a plot ratio of 1:1, or 16 units per acre.

There will be 180 units of resort condominium villas and 70 units of studio apartments built on 6.47ha of land, which according to Badlishah, will be constructed in an area which is less used by the park dwellers.

“The remaining 1.17ha of land marked for future development is located near the Sime Darby Healthcare (formerly known as Subang Jaya Medical Centre), and we plan to construct long-stay units for the hospital,” he said.

Sime Darby will apply to have the land titles for these developments changed accordingly.

To eliminate the worry of adding burden to Jalan SS12/1, the current main access road into the park, Sime Darby will build an exclusive access road into the park behind the new wing of Sime Darby Healthcare.

Brand new: An open ampitheatre will be built in Subang Ria Park to stage performances in the future.

The current entrance would be closed to vehicle traffic once the new access route is ready. It will be converted into a pedestrian path.

Speaking on the commencement of the upgrading work, Badlishah said it would take about a year to do so, if the residents agree to the plan.

“Hopefully, it will be ready in time for our 100th year anniversary in 2010 where we will hand the park back to the people as part of our corporate social responsibility,” he said.

Badlishah said residents in the area would have an opportunity to view the developer’s proposal to upgrade the park on National Day and put in their suggestions to further improve efforts to enhance the recreational area.

To a question on whether Sime Darby would accept any land swap to keep the park undisturbed, Badlishah said they were open to other choices but the company had an affinity to the township.

“Furthermore, who’s going to develop the park if we opt for a land swap?” he said.

The park has been alienated to the developer by the former Selangor state government in December 1987.

It has always been a controversy whenever the issue of developing the park was brought up.

At the recent public hearing for the Subang Jaya Draft Local Plan, state local government, studies and research committee chairman Ronnie Liu told the media that the government would allow a small part of the park to be developed as long as the developer could keep most of it as public amenity.

His statement drew flak from some Subang Jaya residents, including Subang Jaya assemblyman Hannah Yeoh, who insisted that the government should prevent the park from being developed and also gazette it as a recreational park.

Yeoh, when contacted, said she was waiting for Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim to meet the residents. “The residents said that they don’t want any development at all,” she said.

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