Hotel to be built as planned
Neighbour’s protests to Soonstead project hollow and cynical, says planning board
GEORGE TOWN: A 13-storey hotel will be built on the grounds of the sprawling Soonstead mansion in Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah here after its neighbour lost the appeal against the developer’s planning permission.
Penang Planning Appeals Board dismissed the appeal filed by the management corporation (MC) of The Mayfair Super Condominium, which is next door to the mansion.
Board chairman Datuk Yeo Yang Poh, in his judgment, said the MC’s arguments against the hotel development were “hollow and cynical” because The Mayfair Super Condominium was itself a 29-storey building and the tallest in the street.
“If the argument that development on the Soonstead grounds will be disharmonious with the surroundings is accepted, then any form of development in the area would be disharmonious and this discriminates against the property owner.
“The area’s environment is predominantly commercial. Equal treatment must be given to all property owners in the area,” Yeo declared.
According to the planning permission, Soonstead mansion itself will be preserved and the 13-storey hotel will be built in the rear of the 1ha land.
The owner is Bayview Hotel Sdn Bhd and its lawyer Daphne Choy told reporters that the owner has committed to fully preserving the mansion.
“No part will be demolished and the mansion will house some of the hotel’s facilities.
“The appellant’s own high-rise has already tainted, ruined and irrevocably changed the skyline, roofscape and character of the street well before the owner of Soonstead submitted its development plan,” she said.
Choy represented the owner while Datuk Lakhbir Singh acted for the condo’s MC.
Soonstead is one of the last colonial day architectural treasures in Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah.
Built around 1910 for rubber and sugar planter Heah Swee Lee, it was called Northam Lodge before it was sold to the Soon family.
Heritage conservationists cried foul in 2014 when word began to spread that a 13-storey hotel with 97 rooms would be built there.
In 2015, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, as state Local Government Committee chairman then, gave assurance that the mansion would not be torn down in the development plan.