City Hall gives approval for Damansara 16 project

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 16): Kuala Lumpur City Hall has given Selangor Dredging Berhad (SDB) the green light to develop the hillslope in Medan Damansara.

SDB communications and corporate affairs head Lina Othman told The Malaysian Insider that they received the approval from City Hall on September 3, 2014.

“We have been given the Development Order and Earthwork approval. However, we will not be developing the site in the immediate future due to the current challenging economic situation,” she said, adding that SDB intended to build 16 bungalows on the site.

“We will continue to carry out maintenance, such as grass cutting, plant trimming and overseeing the site. Fogging is also carried out on a monthly basis,” she said.

Medan Damansara Residents’ Association president Peter Raiappan said he was shocked to find out that City Hall had approved the project.

“All this while, we thought that the project was put on hold. We are taken aback by the decision,” he said.

Raiappan said the council should have consulted the residents living closest to the hillslope before giving approval for the project.

“City Hall should have at least engaged us about this,” he said.

Datuk Tan Keng Chok, City Hall executive director, said the project had been abandoned but was in the process of being revived.

“Work has not commenced on the site yet,” he said.

The Malaysian Insider reported yesterday that residents of Medan Damansara were living in fear that a hillslope adjacent to their homes may give way to landslips during the rainy season, particularly in view of the landslide on the Karak Highway recently.

The residents claimed that on Wednesday evening there was an overflow of water from the hillslope into a house on Jalan Setiapuspa 3, causing the compound to flood.

They claim that the water had come from above a zinc hoarding on the hillslope next to their homes.

Resident Dzullikram Zollbahrin, 28, told The Malaysian Insider that the incident occurred after a heavy downpour at 5pm.

“It was like a waterfall gushing over the hoarding into the house and flooding the kitchen. The water rose to 50cm, but we were thankful that no one was hurt,” he had said.

Raiappan, who lives a few doors away from the hillslope, said that chances of a landslip occurring were ever present.

“Next time it rains, the houses nearest the hillslope are going to be flooded,” he said.

It was reported in an English daily in 2008, that two families in Jalan Setiapuspa 1 fled their houses after a landslip forced the zinc fence wall of their homes to collapse.

Dr Marsita Mansor, whose corner house was badly affected, estimated damage to her home at more than RM1 million, because the family had renovated the property before moving in.

The family and their neighbour were told by the Fire and Rescue Department to vacate the houses due to the fear of more landslips. City Hall then halted the Damansara 21 project after the incident.

In 2011, the project was to resume once the developer had submitted a new plan for 16 bungalows, instead of 21, to City Hall.

Former Kuala Lumpur mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail said that he had reached an agreement with the developer that they would reduce the number of bungalows to 16.

The developer will have to submit a new plan, Fuad said after meeting Medan Damansara residents.

Fuad also said the developer would be required to have a 4.5m buffer zone separating the development and the houses nearby. -- The Malaysian Insider