The Cove condominium residents feel the project is too close for comfort and may affect their quality of life.

The residents’ spokesman, Michael Deeb, said the proposed project lacked the usual 20m buffer and was instead only six metres from The Cove.

“We are already faced with bumper-to-bumper traffic in Tanjung Bungah. We feel adding a mammoth project here will only worsen the situation.

“Most of us are staying here for the character and natural beauty of Penang. If that is destroyed, we will have to leave the island,” the expatriate told a press conference here today.

The residents of The Cove had learnt about the project after the city council invited them to an objection hearing.

There, they were told the proposed 65-storey mixed development consisted of 217 apartment units and 420 hotel rooms on a 1.01ha site zoned for tourism.

The Cove, in comparison, is 40 storeys high and has 160 units.

Deeb said they were not given the necessary documents such as social and traffic surveys and wind tunnelling reports.

“How are we to object to the proposal when the finer details are not presented to us.

At the objection hearing, Deeb said Penang mayor Patahiyah Ismail told the residents the council would revert with answers to the questions raised.

Deeb also said they had endured enough noise following the construction of another condominium nearby four years ago.

“We had to put up with constant noise pollution and the children could not use the playground due to safety reasons during that time.

”It is not fair for us to suffer that nightmare again.

“This time around, the proposed high-rise is to tower 25 storeys above us,” he said.

Penang Island City Council officials and Patahiyah have been contacted for comment.