MBPJ will be incorporating the placemaking concept into the council’s Car-Free Day event held at Laman MBPJ by engaging and working with local residents, business operators and other stakeholders. — Photos by LOW LAY PHON, SAMUEL ONG and AZHAR MAHFOF/The Star
Bringing the placemaking concept to an existing area such as Section 52 in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, can go a long way towards making it a more exciting and liveable space, say urban planning experts.
The area, which is a commercial centre and a hub for various local and Federal government offices, is home to several landmarks, including Petaling Jaya’s first cinema, the imposing Menara MBPJ and the MBPJ Civic Hall.
However, over the years, PJ New Town, as it is better known, has become infamous for its traffic congestion and dearth of parking spaces during office hours.
Despite having a multi-storey carpark, most drivers prefer to look for street parking, sometimes leading to gridlock in the commercial area.
Jia-Ping says workshop participants also looked into how to increase the diversity and ease of mobility along Lorong Sultan, from the Taman Jaya LRT Station to the commercial area.
But come 6pm, the area is relatively quiet as most shoplots close and only a smattering of restaurants are open to cater to after-hours crowds.
Plans to rejuvenate PJ New Town should involve having more activities to cater to various community segments, as well as making it people-friendly and safer for pedestrians.
These are among the suggestions following a two-day Place-Led Development Workshop held in Section 52 which was attended by 30 participants made up of architects, town planners, government officers and developers.
It was jointly organised by Placemaking Malaysia and Malaysian Institute of Planners (MIP), with the support of Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).
Lih Shyan (right) speaking to workshop participants during their site visit to Section 52, also known as PJ New Town. — Photo courtesy of MBPJ
Placemaking is defined as the process of creating quality places in which people want to live, work, play and learn.
“The workshop aimed to give participants insight into what it takes to make a place exciting, liveable and vibrant, ideally prior to a development taking place,” said Pollin8 director and Placemaking Malaysia chairman Lee Jia-Ping, who served as workshop facilitator alongside Hans Karssenberg, a partner at urban development consultancy Stipo.
Town planner Rene Fu said the workshop included a site visit around parts of Section 52 to get a better idea of the situation on the ground.
The participants spoke to people who worked in or frequented Section 52 and came up with ideas on how to make the area more people-friendly and lively.
“We want to encourage people to walk more and use public transport, since there is an LRT station nearby. There is also a need to make the streets safe, especially at night,” said Fu, an MIP council member and workshop participant.
“One suggestion was to create some activities around Section 52 so that the area would be lively in both daytime and nighttime.”Jia-Ping said: “Participants also looked into how to connect people along Lorong Sultan, from the Taman Jaya LRT station through the Section 52 commercial centre, even up to Laman MBPJ.
Fu says one of the ways to encourage developers to provide public spaces in transport-oriented development buildings is by giving incentives that are not monetary.
“One suggestion was to pedestrianise the whole street, then create a linear park so that the connectivity would be nicer.
“We also advocated that the sports complex (PJ Palms Sports Centre) needs to be there in the street’s next iteration. Even though it’s privately run, it is a lively place with a variety of activities and retail shops that serve the community.”
Transit, diversity, mobility
As MBPJ desires to make Lorong Sultan a transit-oriented development (TOD) area, Jia-Ping said participants also looked into how to increase the diversity and ease of mobility along the street and commercial area.
“Diversity in this case refers to income level, residential mix (affordable to middle-income range), age groups, services, commercial mix and accessibility. Section 52 lacks diversity of services that cater to multiple segments of a community,” she said.
Fu said one of the ways to encourage developers to provide public spaces in TOD buildings was by giving incentives that were not monetary.
Jia-Ping says the old model of building a place and hoping people will come doesn’t quite work anymore.
“One example is not including public facilities as part of a building’s gross floor area calculation so the plot ratio doesn’t increase.
“Another is to consider a private-public concept, where a private commercial or residential building has certain community facilities that are open for public use,” she said.
Jia-Ping said representatives from Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority shared with her that there was a requirement for new developments in Singapore to have a percentage of space in their buildings made available to the public.
“These public or community spaces can be a park, library, sports or activity centre. They are open 24 hours, are linked to train stations and can be accessed by the public through dedicated pathways, without disturbing the building’s occupants,” she said.
Jia-Ping was hopeful that Malaysia could emulate TOD developments in Utrecht, the Netherlands, whereby a council or committee that included placemakers would be formed to provide input into project design and development.
Follow-up action
Following the submission of a report with recommendations from the workshop to MBPJ, Jia-Ping said representatives from Placemaking Malaysia and MIP would be discussing the next steps with the city council.
MBPJ Development Planning Department director Lee Lih Shyan said MBPJ would be incorporating the placemaking concept into the council’s Car-Free Day event by engaging and working with local residents, business operators and other stakeholders.The event is held on Sunday mornings at Laman MBPJ.
“Based on MBPJ’s development plan, which comprises the local plan and special area plan, a TOD area will be given priority in terms of providing conducive walkways as well as creating first- and last-mile connectivity between surrounding developments and the nearest transit stations,” said Lih Shyan.
“Given that Lorong Sultan is located next to Taman Jaya LRT Station, this road will be given priority to be upgraded as a safe and comfortable pedestrian walkway.
“New development projects that have been approved within Section 52 will have an impact and give new life to various socio-economic activities in the local area.”
He said MBPJ had plans to redevelop parcels of land it owned along Lorong Sultan into a mixed development project and to redevelop Dataran Petaling Jaya as a convention and recreation centre.
“The council has identified two areas within and near Section 52 as TOD zones – Taman Jaya LRT Station and Asia Jaya LRT Station.“The local plan and special area plan will support the development in these two TOD zones,” said Lih Shyan.
He added that MBPJ was still in the discussion stage with MIP and Placemaking Malaysia on the workshop’s recommendations and next steps to be taken.
Traffic congestion is a common sight in the daytime in PJ New Town due to the many banks and shops around this commercial centre.
Three-pronged approach
During the workshop, Jia-Ping also shared a key element in the planning and implementation of placemaking, namely “software, hardware, and orgware (organisation-ware)”.
“Software involves the content elements or understanding the use patterns of a space; hardware is the physical elements or structure; orgware is about who the stakeholders are and who will be managing the place.
“In Malaysia, we tend to be good at hardware, but sometimes lack manpower for orgware, such as local councils that say they lack manpower to carry out maintenance work,” she said.
One solution could be introducing a Business Improvement District (BID) scheme as is practised in some cities overseas.
“This is where all owners and retailers form a committee to oversee and fund the maintenance, improvement and promotion of their commercial area.
“They contribute funds to have ancillary services on top of what the local council provides or to run projects,” she added.
“The scheme is bound by certain laws and guidelines, including having to contribute money for the ancillary services and projects. It only works if it’s by law and cannot be voluntary.”
Section 52 is a busy commercial centre in the daytime, but is quiet at night with only a handful of restaurants and a cinema in operation.
Alternatively, Fu said, local authorities could get creative by offering incentives or rebates to encourage participation by business owners, or creating a business model that encouraged outsiders to shop and support businesses in a particular zone.
“The old model of building a place and hoping people will come doesn’t quite work anymore, as there are a lot of white elephants out there or places that can’t be leased out,” said Jia-Ping.
She said an interesting idea that transpired from the workshop was a return on investment modelling to make the ground floor units of a commercial place the cheapest in terms of rent.
“This will then attract a lot of people to come in, while also making the other floors more valuable and rent can be higher for those floors,” said Jia-Ping, highlighting that this idea had been introduced in the Netherlands and Tokyo, Japan.
“What makes a space a place is the content. Once you make the space cheaper to rent or use, you attract better content.”
She explained that content was what brought people to a place on a regular basis and made it nice for people to work or hang out there. It could be a park, amenities, retail mix or even just benches, she added.
Lack of planning
Fu observed that most developers and town planners did not plan ahead on the retail mix or tenants they wanted when planning townships, which was why the tenant lineup in certain commercial areas was unattractive or many shops ended up being unoccupied.
“The general approach is to design the space first, then only consider who the tenants are.
“The lessons learnt from this is that we have to think about placemaking concepts from the beginning. We need to think about connectivity between buildings, create a centre of activity and build a community.”
Citing the “push and pull” strategy used in marketing, Jia-Ping said if done well, placemaking would become a “pull” to attract people to a place because it had elements that catered to a diverse crowd.
“When you ‘push’, such as developments where there are events held every other month, you have to spend a lot of money and that is costly,” she said.
“A successful place also doesn’t just serve one layer of the community. It has diversity because it caters to a wide range of income levels, age groups, services, retail mix and accessibility.”
Jia-Ping cited Desa ParkCity as one example, which had a natural “pull” factor because its park and shops were located within the same space, hence complementing each other and encouraging spillover activities.
Fu said another example was Gamuda Cove, which developer had already lined up community activities and promoted its water theme park, despite it being a new development.
Such activities are essential to ensure a thriving community.
