Residents demand local plan be gazetted

KUALA LUMPUR: A residents’ coalition intends to take Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to court if the KL Draft Plan 2020 is not gazetted.

Selamatkan Kuala Lumpur chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman said the move is pertinent given the challenges faced by residents to protect their residential areas from being encroached by commercialisation. This includes protecting the loss of open green spaces.

“We’re seeking for DBKL to gazette the draft plan as DBKL is only using it as a guideline,” he told a press conference yesterday after meeting DBKL’s planning executive director Datuk Mohd Najib Mohd.

Abdul Aziz said the coalition has not given the authorities a specific time frame to resolve the issue, saying it was their duty to gazette it.

“In the absence of a local plan, there have been multiple incidences of flash floods caused by lack of vegetation to absorb and channel excess rainwater, which caused monetary losses for residents,” he said, adding that under the Federal Territories Act 1982, a structure plan coupled with a more detailed local plan should be used to administer Kuala Lumpur.

Efforts to contact Mohd Najib for comments were unsuccessful.

On Feb 14, DBKL Mayor Tan Sri Mhd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz reportedly said discussions were being held on the drafting of the KL Structure Plan 2050. – by Elly Fazaniza