Tuesday August 18, 2009
MBPJ to make greening mandatory
Story and photos by YIP YOKE TENG
DEVELOPERS of industrial and commercial projects in Petaling Jaya have to set aside at least 10% of the land for an open space for recreational activities, with a minimum 60% of this area be covered with greenery.
As for residential projects, the developer will have to set aside 20% for green area if the development exceeds 1ha, including reserving a minimum of a two-metre width of perimeter planting strips along its boundaries.
Trees with more than 80cm in girth will be protected while the public are prohibited from causing any damage to them unless permitted by the council for safety reasons such as posing risks to health and safety.
These requirements may sound too sweet at the moment especially for Petaling Jaya folk who are on a constant tug-of-war with developers over green space, but these are some of the highlights in the soon-to-be-introduced Parks and Trees By-Law.
Urban wildlife habitat: Taman Aman is one of the five parks maintained by the Petaling Jaya City Council. Under the rebranding exercise, the council hopes to enhance the parks with more greenery, including special species, to create wildlife habitat right in the city. Compulsory greening
The Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) is currently drafting the by-law to be submitted to the Selangor government for approval and scheduled to be implemented early next year.
It is part of the council’s all-out greening effort with a vision to “recreate nature in the city to provide a comfortable, healthy and quality living environment”. It kicked off last month with the rebranding of its landscape development, now renamed Landscape, Urban Greening and Ecology Department.
“Our target is to have more than 500,000 trees in the city eventually, which is at least one tree to a resident,” said mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman.
Currently, Petaling Jaya has about 150,000 trees and 443 parks or open space totalling 355ha, which is 3% of the city that sprawls over 9,720ha.
Last year, 197,000 plants and 12,489 trees were planted while another 80,800 plants and 6,000 trees were added between January and July this year. About 70% of these plants were contributed by developers.
Cooling: Roads shaded by dense foliage in Bandar Sri Damansara is a soothing and welcoming sight in the city. At this rate, the council has a long way to reach its target but it hopes to achieve that in five years with a higher budget and active public involvement.
The new trees will be planted at existing public parks, neighbourhood parks, buffers or open spaces, roadsides or medians and school compounds. The council will invite the private sector, NGOs, residents associations and schools to take part in mass planting while planting guidelines will be disseminated.
Budget allocated for tree-planting this year was RM200,000 and the council proposes to set aside RM500,000 for 2010. The budget has yet to be approved.
Another beautiful picture painted by the council under this effort is to have the open space in the city linked up with green strips or corridors created by tree-lined roads.
“This is what we have to do now for our future generation,” said Roslan when interviewed at his office, adding that the team that went on a study trip to Singapore did pick up good tips.
“In Singapore, one needs to pay S$200 (RM488) to plant a tree but here we do it free for our people,” he noted.
Wildlife Habitat in the city
To be a little more ambitious than just making it greener for better climate and environment, the council wants to also create wildlife habitat right in the city to bring forth an improved urban ecosystem.
In line with this, the five retention ponds under its care will be enhanced with more greenery, including species rarely seen in the city, to attract wildlife.
The remaining five retention ponds in Petaling Jaya are maintained by the respective developers.
Taman Aman, Taman Bandaran (Kelana Jaya) and Taman Jaya lakes have been identified to take the lead while Taman Rimba Riang in Kota Damansara and another in PJS10 will follow suit.
Skilled and passionate: Abdul Rahman Razali growing plants at MBPJ’s nursery in Kelana Jaya. Good landscape workers are harder to find as the young generation seldom have interest in tree-planting. At these lakes, the council hopes to create a scene similar to that of Lake Cova in PJU5, that has attracted flocks of migratory birds like egrets and herons.
Landscaping director Zuraidah Sainan said the move could maximise the potential of the retention ponds meant for flood mitigation.
“Developers of newer projects have been urged to equip retention ponds with recreational facilities but we face difficulty in upgrading the older ones, especially those in PJ Selatan, due to space constraint,” she said.
Everyone’s responsibility
Keeping the lakes clean is part and parcel of the task but the council cannot do it alone.
“We would love to have sediment ponds to keep our lakes clean but it is costly, so what we can do is to desilt the lakes or to place aerators to induce oxygen into the water,” she said during a visit to several parks in the city.
“The onus is on every one of us to keep our lakes and rivers clean by not throwing rubbish into the drains. Last month, we scooped out a whopping three tonnes of dead fish from the Kelana Jaya lake over two weeks and we could not identify the source as the lake is connected to our drainage system.
“In the past, we have seen mattresses stuck in the lake’s garbage trap,” she said.
She said the council had allocated RM3.6mil for lake and landscape maintenance, adding that RM4mil had been proposed for next year.
Under the rebranding exercise, the council’s nursery facilities at Kelana Jaya and Penchala will be upgraded to cater for more plant production while workers and contractors will be provided hands-on training so that plants are better handled to minimise replacements.
“The council needs co-operation from all walks of life,” urged the mayor, adding that communities and developers are encouraged to adopt the parks and help out in planting trees.
But at the end of the day, the “not-in-my-backyard” attitude of many PJ folk should change.
“We have had residents chopping down matured trees, because they don’t like the trees to be too near to their houses,” he said.
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