GEORGE TOWN, Jan 4 — Civil society groups today urged Penangites to reject the state government’s Penang Island draft local plan as it was badly planned with no focus on sustainable development.
In a joint press conference vy various non-governmental organisations including Consumers Association of Penang, Penang Forum, Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) and Penang Public Transport Users’ Association (PeTUA), the group said there were many weaknesses in the draft local plan which had failed to look into the needs of the people.
One of the massive developments proposed is the rezoning of the Penang Turf Club from a green recreational space into a commercial and mixed development land covering 175.4 acres which is equivalent to the footprints of seven Komtar buildings, he said.
“The Penang state government made a promise that they would reject the Penang Global City Centre (PGCC) project of 36 high-rise towers to be built on Penang Turf Club land back in 2008,” Penang Forum steering committee member Lim Mah Hui said.
He said the Penang Turf Club land was originally handed over to the then state government at a low price to be zoned as a green recreational zone but it was rezoned as a mixed development land with a built up area of two million square feet for PGCC before the project was shelved.
“Now, the draft local plan is proposing a commercial and mixed development with a possible gross build-up area of 42.3 million square feet on that land,” he said.
He said there was no justification or statement of need for the proposed land use.
“This kind of over development is unprecedented, it will result in irreversible negative impacts with major ramifications for the whole of Penang island which will disrupt the dynamics of the planning, economic, social and environmental objectives of the state,” he said.
Other than the possible traffic congestion it will cause as it only has one main access road that is already congested, Lim said this kind of high-density zoning defies all logic of sustainable development.
“The Penang Turf Club is crucial vast green lung and sponge so an open green people’s park on even a portion of the land would provide organic abundant greenery, walking trails, jobbing and cycling tracks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Penang Heritage Trust vice president Khoo Salma said the overall draft local plan showed a higher density of commercial and residential developments.
“We already have an overhang of commercial and residential buildings, we only have a population of about 1.7 million but their focus is on building properties for outsiders, not for locals because most of these projects are unaffordable,” she said.
She said the island is space limited because most Penangites are car dependent instead of using public transportation so an increase in more developments will only lead to more traffic congestion.
She said the main issue is a lack of housing that can fit the budgets of locals in accordance with their average income.
In terms of heritage, she said the draft local plan has a chapter on heritage and urban identity that contains a list of 52 heritage buildings outside of the George Town World Heritage Site.
“The draft local plan did not consult the Penang Hill Special Area Plan or MBPP’s own gazetted special area plans (2016) or other existing heritage inventories,” she said.
She said the number of heritage buildings listed in the draft local plan is 1,714 heritage buildings, of which 56 are category I and 1,648 are category II.
“It does not tally with that in the updated George Town Special Area Plan with 3,977 heritage buildings with 82 in Category I and 3,895 in Category II,” she said.
There were also errors in the draft local plan such as labeling the Queen Victoria Jubilee Clock Tower as “Queen Elizabeth Clock Tower” and Dewan Mahatma Gandhi being misspelled as “Dewah Mahatma Ghani”.
She said the 52 heritage sites outside of the George Town World Heritage Site did not include many locations such as the 122-year-old Wadda Gurdwara Sahib which is to be listed as a national heritage and Penang Free School which is recognised as a national heritage by the national heritage department.
PeTUA treasurer Zulfikar Abdul Aziz said the chapter on public transportation needs to be revamped as the objectives listed are flawed.
Among the objectives was naming the Bayan Lepas LRT as the main transport mode for the city area, a target to increase public transport modal share to 40 per cent by 2030 and to introduce four additional routes to the existing Rapid Penang public transport routes.
“It is our opinion that the LRT is unlikely to be completed by 2030 so it should not be a priority in a local plan that expires on 2030,” he said.
He pointed out that the current public transport modal share is less than five per cent so the 40 per cent target is not realistic.
“It is better and more productive to focus first on the establishment of a comprehensive first last mile service for the existing routes in order to improve ridership in a sustainable way,” he said.
A Penang Parti Sosialist Malaysia spokesman, Choo Chon Kai, said the National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) listed a total 5,222 units of unsold residential units in Penang as at the third quarter of 2022.
“A majority of the unsold units are priced above the affordability of a majority of Penangites including those labelled as ‘affordable housing’ but are priced above RM200,000,” he said.
He pointed out that even the draft local plan touched on the issue of housing affordability in Penang where the index for the affordability of housing in Penang is categorised as “very unaffordable” but it failed to propose any resolution to the problem.
“Housing above RM200,000 should not be categorised as affordable housing for the B40 and M40,” he said.
They hoped more Penangites will submit their objections to the Penang Island City Council with regards to the draft local plan before it is too late. The public display of the draft local plan is only until January 10.
