SEBERANG PERAI, July 10 — Penang expects to gazette its first-ever Seberang Perai Local Plan by October this year, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said today.
He said this will mark a major milestone for the state to guide future development on the mainland.
The gazettement of the local plan will provide a comprehensive framework for physical development, ensuring land is used optimally while balancing economic growth with the needs of local communities, he added.
“The Seberang Perai Local Plan will be gazetted in a few more months, by October this year,” he told reporters after officiating the upgraded playground at Taman Mangga here.
“The gazettement will chart the direction of physical development in Seberang Perai to create a well-planned and orderly city, with optimal land use while safeguarding the interests of the community through balanced development,” he said.
Chow said the state remained committed to attracting investments and developing infrastructure but stressed that community facilities must be planned alongside economic expansion.
”We pursue investment and infrastructure development, but we do not neglect the need for community facilities,” he said.
He said the public display for the Seberang Perai Local Plan had already concluded and the state was now moving towards gazettement.
Once gazetted, Chow said applications to rezone land would become more structured and subject to a stricter statutory process.
He explained that rezoning would still be allowed, but not on an ad hoc basis as before.
”It does not mean there can no longer be any rezoning after the local plan is gazetted,” he said.
”But the same statutory process must be followed, including public display and public hearings,” he added.
Instead of considering individual rezoning applications as they come in, Chow said the state government intends to accumulate a substantial number of proposals before carrying out a formal review exercise, likely once every year or two.
”We won’t do it every month. We will collect a sizeable number of applications before carrying out an exercise to consider them,” he said.
He said the new approach would bring greater certainty and consistency to planning decisions.
On the Penang Island Local Plan, Chow said it was still being revised after weaknesses were identified in the previous draft.
”As you know, we are redoing it after weaknesses were found in the draft,” he said.
He said the revised draft would still have to undergo public display before it could proceed further but expressed confidence that the process would be completed before 2030.
“It will definitely be completed before 2030, maybe within a year,” he said.
He said the state had finally managed to complete and gazette one local plan after so many years.
The previous state administration, under Barisan Nasional, had completed an initial local plan draft back in 2008 but before it could be approved and gazetted, the state fell under Pakatan Harapan’s administration.
The local plans for both districts were delayed from then.
The local plans are statutory plans that contain policies and strategic planning of the state structure plan with a more detailed land use map for the Local Planning Authorities.
