KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — It has been close to 10 years since the Draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 was launched.
Yet, it has not been gazetted and will instead be thrown into the bin as City Hall plans to introduce a new development blueprint for the city.
Revealing this yesterday, mayor Datuk Seri Mhd Amin Noordin Abd Aziz said the new blueprint being drafted was for development until 2050.
He said it would not “make sense” to gazette the original plan “as it is so close to 2020”.
“The master plan was drafted in 2007 and there are only three years left when the term of the plan is supposed to expire,” he said.
“Common sense tells us there is no point in gazetting the plan now, with only three years left.”
Mhd Amin said the council’s planning department was working on the new blueprint.
He said the current plan did not take into account land prices which had risen dramatically since the initial draft plan, and this had hampered economic growth.
“The holding cost of land is very high and we are trying to reduce the cost because developer land can be up to RM3,000 per square foot in some areas,” he said.
“For example, if a developer buys one acre of land in Jalan Pinang for RM150 million and builds a 30-storey building, they will still not be able to recover their cost.”
Mhd Amin’s comments echo those of Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, who told Malay Mail recently he would “never sign the plan”, citing incompatibility with the current demands on housing and land prices.
Launched in May 2008, the draft plan was initially slated to be gazetted in 2009.
However, it was delayed to 2012, and then 2013, following numerous objections over land use and density matters.
Residents in several areas including Taman Tiara Titiwangsa, Bukit Bandaraya and Taman Desa had in recent weeks complained that the lack of a gazetted plan had left them at the mercy of developers who had resorted to ad hoc development which was not in line with the original plan.
The residents also complained ad hoc development had worsened traffic congestion within the city limits, destroyed designated green lungs and even led to frequent flash floods.
Stakeholders had also argued the current plan should be used as a guide in lieu of an alternative being prepared, and approval for development projects should be frozen in the interim.
