KL City Hall needs RM135mil to compenstate proposed project in Bukit Gasing

The Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) will have to fork out RM135mil to acquire the land if it did not want the proposed development in Bukit Gasing.

Mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail said according to Federal Territory (Planning) Act 1982 (Act 267) Section 25, the developer could claim compensation if DBKL cancelled the approval for the development.

He said this in response to the gathering by about 100 people on Sunday who were concerned about the development on the Kuala Lumpur side of the hill.

The residents had applied for a judicial review in the High Court in 2008 challenging DBKL’s approval of the development.

The High Court had made its decision on Sept 6, 2010 and the residents were denied the right to be heard.

The residents appealed against the decision in the Court of Appeal yesterday but it was unsuccessful.

“Even before the inception of Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, the land had already been zoned for housing by the Selangor town and country planning department. “Therefore, there is no issue about land usage when we received the proposal for development.

“On the other side, there is already a high-density condominium project while the proposed one in Kuala Lumpur only has 71 bungalows.

“The earthwork being carried out at the site is being monitored by the Public Works Institute of Malaysia (Ikram).

“DBKL has 52.6ha of green lung compared with only 36.42ha for Selangor and we have added another 6ha more, so how can they question our commitment?” he asked.

He added that the application for the green lung to be gazetted had already been submitted to the land office.

“The land use and zoning are also in our structure plan. The Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah has been informed about the proposed development and discussions had been held with the residents.

“There wasn’t any public hearing because the land title was not changed and our approval was based on the compliance of the terms for development,” he said.

By The Star