Sg Ara folk against hillside project
THE Penang Appeals Board has fixed July 18 for the hearing of the case of residents of Sungai Ara who are against the approval of a hillside development project in the area.
Board chairman Datuk Yeo Yang Poh set the date after getting the agreement on the date from the project developer, Sunway City Sdn Bhd, and the counsel for the residents (the apellants).
Datuk Lakhbir Singh Chahl, who represents six of the apellants, said that their grounds for objection to the project included the elevation (the height) at which the development is taking place on the hill.
The other grounds were the interpretation of the term ‘projek istimewa’ (special project category under which the projects were approved by the Penang Municipal Council) and the density of the project (in terms of the number of units per acre).
Three of the appellants who are residents staying near the project site are represented by Y. Yogeswaran.
Sunway City is represented by Christina Siew.
It was reported that on April 8, a group of 200 residents from various housing estates as well as representatives of Sahabat Alam Malaysia staged a protest against the project.
The residents had received a notification from the council’s Planning Department that the project was approved on Feb 21 despite their efforts to raise their concerns with state Town and Country Planning, Housing and Arts Committee chairman Wong Hon Wai and Batu Maung assemblyman Abdul Malik Abul Kassim.
In a report on April 10, Penang MCA secretary Lau Chiek Tuan had said that the protest by the residents against the development proved that the state government had ignored the people’s voice and forsaken their welfare.
Source: The Star
Obviously this project is not safe, peoples who live there will be suffered if landslide happen… maybe there are some gray area in decision making, but i sincerely hope that penang governement can handle this “Smartly”… because this neither benefit to the people nor the environment !
Hate those irresponsible developers. I hope the residents win this case!
The Penang people especially staying in Sg Ara should express their views. To support or against. For me personnally i m against it (even though i dont stay there). this can caused another Highland tower tregedy…..PERHAPS it can be worse than LYNAS impact if anything to happen!
The land was sold by KOPERASI at very low price due to hill slope to Sunway just about 2/3 years ago. Hence the current LGE must clean up the act.
Govt should consider moratorium as suggested by NGO on new projects in Island. Let’s develop the Mainland to create more balance development.
@layman
Fully support your statement. The Mainland is something that can be further developed to channel away the crowd from the island. There is so much that can be done, like making the city plan to be grid-like. With this the town layout will be fully optimized without any land wastage.
Many thanks for LIM GUAN ENG leadership for approving this. He just care about making money, where got care about enviroment ?
Agree. The efforts of Go Green in Penang is totally offset by this “special” project ! But why this project is so called special? Sunway City use special way to get this approved?
This sad situation arises because LGE administration did not draft out a good city plan that spans over a good 10-20 years development and no guidelines or rules to control rampant developments. New project crops up at the whim of the developers and MPPP’s job seems to just approve anything without research or scrutiny. MPPP is the last barrier to protect the people from irresponsible and unscrupulous developers. If the authorities let us down, where else can we seek help? There is definitely a huge loop hole in the current system.
LGE seems to think that a global / world city is built just by increasing the density. Much lacking is a sound planning to divert traffic. Nothing is done to address the lack of infrastructure like public parks, hospitals and better schools. To build a liveable city is more than building more condos and houses. Bayan Mutiara is another disappointment. It becomes yet another high density condos. What has happened to the Medical Center concept? I do want to believe that LGE is doing a great job… but all these recent happenings is convincing me otherwise.
Awww c’mon, you guys are acting like saviour. It’s always easy to critisize ler. It will be more constructive if you guys can share some solutions..;p
10-20 years road map? The darn KTK and gang was given 50 years to plan… I see more improvement in 4 years from LGE than the previous Boh Hoot administration…
Tun Dr Lim was an exception. Give time to LGE before judging him and team…
Let’s not divert from the topic into politics here.
Frankly LGE cant be micro manage all approval. But he still can help to revert the decision.
We want to solve this critical issue and so that the RAKYAT safety and need would prevails.
Yes, a good leader should solve this in no time, especially in this critical moment, i dun mind to become part of the “One” !
do U guys think all those in the Govt R like LGE?
Hmmm…seems that such topic do not bother much the buyer/speculators.
We need more voices & support to send the clear message to the state…..if u r already in Sg Ara or thinking to buy there, pls consider to support this effort.
Before Sunway bought this land, the previous owner asking for RM12.00 per sq ft for sale for quite sometime but no ppl want to buy because this piece of land is hillland and above 25 degree which suppose cannot be developed. I am shocked to hear that MPPP was granted the approval for such massive development just for the reason of ‘ special project’. Why this project is called ‘ special project’ I really dont understand.