Stakeholders attending the KLSP2040 engagement session. — LOW LAY PHON/The Star
CITY stakeholders are pushing for more public open spaces to be gazetted under the draft Kuala Lumpur Structural Plan 2040 (KLSP2040).
This is in line with the draft plan’s target of creating 4,700ha of open spaces to achieve 20sqm of the same per citizen by 2040.
However, this is a far cry from the 1,098.08ha of open spaces gazetted so far.
Stakeholders feel the current draft plan lacks details on commitment to gazette open spaces.
During the third draft KLSP 2040 amendment engagement session, Save Kuala Lumpur (SKL) chairman Datuk M. Ali said institutional land and open spaces must be protected from development.
“This is necessary because there is very limited available land for development,” he said at the session at Menara DBKL, Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur,
“Retention ponds for flood mitigation should be gazetted too.”
Kuala Lumpur Residents Associations + (KLRAs+) pro-tem chairman Tan Booi Charn said that on top of gazetting open spaces, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) should reinstate good policies restricting hillslope development.
Kamarulzaman: It is important for KLSP2040 to be gazetted otherwise DBKL will revert to KLSP2020.
“There is not much land left for development and when that happens, developers eye hillslopes.
“Strict policies on hillslope development should be spelt out like the previous KLSP 2020.
“I feel the current amendment is not clear enough and policies highlighted in KLSP 2020 should be included in the current amendment,” she said.
It is stated, under the draft plan’s infrastructure development for natural disaster and climate change that DBKL will gazette flood retention ponds and maintain their functions.
Both groups also gave feedback on preservation of green lungs, enhancing public transport and efforts to make Kuala Lumpur a more liveable city.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Kamarulzaman Mat Salleh reminded attendees on the importance of gazetting KLSP2040.
“If the draft plan for 2020-2040 is not gazetted, then KLSP2020 will be followed,” he said.
“The draft plan was amended based on the Malaysia Madani concept introduced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“After the structural plan is gazetted, then we can move on to the Kuala Lumpur City Plan (KLCP) 2020-2040.”
However, SKL representative Leon Koay said DBKL might want to hold off on gazetting KLSP2040 as it has content from KLCP2020 which was subjected to a judicial review.
“A group of residents applied for judicial review to challenge the plan’s validity in 2019 as it was only gazetted 10 years after it was made public.
“There are 273 infringement to the plan and DBKL should resolve the case before gazetting KLSP2040,” he said.
DBKL executive director (planning) Datuk Sulaiman Mohamed said the matter had been highlighted to legal advisers of the Prime Minister’s Department.
DBKL Infrastructure Planning Department director Nor Fajariah Sulaiman, who chaired the session, said 1,414 public suggestions were received when the draft plan was up for public viewing.
“A total of 1,043 was related to KLSP2040 while the others were about KLCP and issues on management, enforcement and legal matters,” she said.
Out of the 1,043 suggestions, 864 were accepted and 114 were added as improvements to the draft plan.
