KL mayor Datuk Seri Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
KUALA LUMPUR: The proposed Urban Renewal Act (URA) is an opportunity for the government to enhance Kuala Lumpur (KL) and provide a better quality of life for its residents, says mayor Datuk Seri Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
Maimunah was responding to a question on concerns surrounding the URA, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament by November.
Some of those concerns include the potential for gentrification and displacement of low-income residents, as well as the fear of the URA being perceived as a “land grab” by developers.
“Regarding the URA, I reserve my comments on it because it is still being drafted and is still a work in progress.
“However, this is an opportunity for the government to look back and see how they can improve the quality of life of residents who for instance have been living in a one-room flat or two-room flat, in public housing built in the 60s and 70s.
“In any housing development now, we have a minimum of three rooms, but back then there were one-room units,” she told reporters during the 15th International Conference on World Class Sustainable Cities (WCSC 2024).
The objective of the URA is to simplify the process for strata property owners to redevelop their properties without having to obtain 100% consent.
Under the current regulation, unanimous agreement is needed before any termination of strata titles of a subdivided building is approved.
On this note, director general of Town and Country Planning Malaysia, Datuk Alias Rameli, in his keynote address, reiterated that it was proposed under the URA for the consent threshold to be reduced to 80% for buildings less than 30 years and 75% for those older than 30 years.
Additionally, unsafe and abandoned buildings will both require a consent threshold of 51%.
Alias also added in comparison, the consent threshold is at 90% and 80% for buildings less than 10 years and over 10 years respectively, in Singapore.
“In Singapore, they have set up the Urban Redevelopment Authority since 1974.
“For Peninsular Malaysia, there are more than 534 sites that have the potential to be developed through the concept of urban renewal. Moreover, in KL, 139 buildings have been identified as potential ones to be developed under the URA. These 139 buildings or sites have a gross development value of up to RM355.3bil,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maimunah said Kuala Lumpur City Hall encourages mixed-use developments, which includes residential, commercial and recreational spaces and efforts are being made to upgrade the existing regulations of mixed-use development projects.
“Mixed-use developments have decreased the need for long trips by allowing people to live, work and play in the same neighbourhood.
“Such initiatives are intended to generate a sense of community while reducing urban sprawl and making the city more sustainable. This is also known as transit oriented development.
“Once we have achieved a certain density in a development, we also have to think about the less fortunate by providing them with affordable housing. However, at the same time we are also being fair to developers.
“We are also looking at giving developers an extra (development) density like cross subsidisation when they provide Residensi Madani, because they are doing business,” she said.
