KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — The landscape architect behind the controversial hillslope community park in Bangsar said today that residents need not worry about soil erosion or excessive run-off as mitigation efforts will be put in place.

Ng Sek San, who heads the project named Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, explained that the project will affect the existing landscape minimally and likely not involve much heavy machinery.

"The first thing TNB said when they gave us approval was that we cannot build any structure there. And we will not be removing the ground cover because we’re only proposing a kebun for vegetable farming,” he said, referring to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) who owns the reserve land the park will be built on.

"Even if we clear any areas, we will plant shrubbery and flowers and we are adamant that we don’t want to use heavy machinery. Most of the work we will do by hand. Immediately as we clear the land, we will plant it back,” he said in a phone interview with Malay Mail Online.

However, he said that it was still necessary to have another meeting with all the stakeholders, along with the appropriate experts, in order to alleviate the residents’ fears and explain the risks as well as benefits of the project.

"We are organising another meeting with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), the Rukun Tetangga and the residents’ association.

"We are also inviting the TNB expert on soil erosion and we also have our own engineers who are coming,” he said, adding that a date had yet to be set due to conflicting schedules with the various agencies.

He added that TNB has also had their own engineers look over the project to ensure that soil erosion does not affect its facility or any surrounding structures.

"TNB especially is very concerned because when they approve this project, it is under the condition that everything must be monitored by their engineers,” he said

Yesterday evening, residents of Bangsar’s Taman Weng Lock launched a petition drive against Kebun-Kebun Bangsar over various concerns including drainage and increased traffic in the already-congested area.

When asked about congestion, Ng said that they are looking into changing the access point to ensure that the entrance to the park is not easily accessible to non-residents.

"We are considering changing the access point to Lorong Bukit Pantai 4 and Jalan Bukit Pantai. No outsiders will come through it, it’s a convoluted route anyway,” he said.

The hill slope is a reserve for TNB and where electric pylons pass through (left); A view of the hill slope covered with weed — a natural erosion mitigation agent (right).

He also pointed out that the park could potentially give residents added security as it will be gated, thus giving nearby houses an additional layer of security.

"Just maybe about three days ago, a robbery took place on Lorong Pantai 4 and they were using TNB to access the house. With this, we will improve security because we just want to block off all access.

"We will put up a security fence so that we can control opening hours. So at night, we will lock it up so residents who share boundaries with the park will have another layer of fences. This will only improve security,” he said.

Ng lamented, however, that it was sad that the project which was intended to bring people together was instead having the opposite effect.

"What is more important is residents coming together. The park was just a means to bring the community together and to build the grassroots movement because in Malaysia we talk about wanting to bring about change but change only happens on the ground and this is one of the efforts,” he said.

Despite the opposition, he sees the petition drive as a positive initiative as it will be able to gauge sentiment for the project and help the developers determine how to proceed.

"The petition, we welcome it. It’ll show how many people are supporting it or otherwise because we’ve also been receiving very good feedback, some people want the kebun.

"We are just the facilitators, we have to accommodate all parties involved and some are very much for it, some are very much against it. As facilitators, we want to take a neutral position,” he said.

In a May 28 post on Kebun-Kebun Bangsar’s Facebook page, the project’s team appealed to the public for funds to build an "11.5 acres community park-farm in Bangsar on a piece of TNB reserve” which it said it was finally getting the necessary approvals after working on this plan for the last three years.

The project team also said that it hopes to be on site in early July 2016 to start work on the park-farm that it said "will be fully funded, designed and managed by our community.”