Residents protest ‘total madness’ housing project
100 families of former estate workers to be rehoused after 30 years but eight blocks of serviced apartments also to be built at the longhouse site.
PETALING JAYA: Storm clouds are building over “total madness” in a proposed housing project in Taman TTDI to rehouse estate workers relocated 30 years ago — because the plans include eight other blocks of up to 54 storeys of serviced apartments.
There are fears that the project would also eat into Rimba Kiara park, one of the few remaining green lungs in the capital.
Kuala Lumpur City Hall notices about the project went up last week at the longhouse site next to the park where about 100 families, or about 700 people, have been living since they were relocated from former rubber estates in the 1980s.
The site adjoins the affluent Taman Tun Dr Ismail housing estate – and residents have called for a public forum in protest at the steep rise in density as proposed.
The project comprises a 29-storey block with 350 “affordable” 850 sq ft flats and eight other tower blocks, some as high as 54 storeys, for 1,800 serviced apartments.
The “affordable” flats would be sold to 100 estate families at RM25,000 each and 83 to other families at RM150,000 each. The rest would be sole to the public at market rates, according to news reports.
While the estate families are pleased at being rehoused, TTDI residents are unhappy about plans for eight other tower blocks and the steep increase in density.
Village head, V. Sundram, was quoted as saying he understood the anger of TTDI residents. “They are not against the affordable housing given to us, but the density of the apartments is very high. We are talking about 55 storeys and eight blocks, so that is too much, even we are not entirely happy about that part.”
Eight blocks, some as high as 54 storeys, would be built containing 1,766 serviced apartments.
TTDI Residents Association chairman Abdul Hafiz Abu Bakar, told Malay Mail Online “the proposed development is total madness. How can you increase a 74 person per acre density to 979? The current infrastructure does not allow for such a density,” he added.
There were fears that the project would encroach into Rimba Kiara Park.
“Government policy is not to reduce the acreage of public parks, but they want to increase it. This development is in violation of that policy,” Abdul Hafiz said.
Conservationist and former forestry research head Dr Salleh Mohd Nor said even a small encroachment would open up the park to future projects.
“If the development is at the location of the present quarters, that’s not a problem, but when it eats into the park, they will take a little bit, a little bit, until there is no more,” he said.
Dr Salleh heads the Friends of Bukit Kiara group. He said: “The Cabinet approved it as a public park, so why is the mayor and the Federal Territories Ministry dragging their feet in gazetting it as a public park?”
But the mayor, Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz, said the park would be untouched. “The development does not affect the park,” he was quoted as saying. “It does not touch Bukit Kiara as it is gazetted, and does not affect Taman Rimba itself. Anything that is gazetted will not be touched.”
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