Residents win battle and developer withdraws application for project

Friday, 30 December 2011 11:00

THE area surrounding the Phileo Damansara Business Centre is chock-a-block with traffic come 6pm on most weekdays.

For those who work in Phileo 1 and 2 (which is along Jalan 16/11), they have to patiently inch their way through the horrendous traffic coming from all directions in the vicinity, namely Jalan Damansara, Jalan Dato’ Abu Bakar and the Sprint Highway.

They cannot bear to think how another development project, if built within this area, will affect the traffic.

Residents staying in Jalan 16/9, behind Phileo Damansara will also have to use the same roads and experience the same painful traffic jam.

No one really paid attention to the empty plot of land, which had been unoccupied for years, situated next to Phileo Damansara 2 and 200m from Eastin Hotel.

For Roy Tan, one of the residents in Jalan 16/9, the fateful Sunday morning came a few months ago when he first noticed an “official looking” envelope sitting on his dining table.

“It was a letter from Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) on the proposed development for the land behind my house, identified as Lot 904 in Jalan 16/11. Imagine this, four towers exceeding 22 floors with one exceeding 30 floors being built literally right behind your house. Words fail to express my deep sense of foreboding,” he said.

Tan was notified by one of his neighbours about a 16/9 residents meeting over the development.

“A good number of residents attended that meeting, a testimony to living in good old neighbourhoods where that communal feeling still exists. A number of them shared the same trepidation. One of the residents, who has been living here for over 30 years shared how previous development on this same plot had been stopped, not once but twice.”

The residents immediately formed a committee to obtain financing from the neighbourhood to hire a lawyer and take firm action to ensure the interest of the community would be represented.

Countless meetings with fellow neighbours were held.

They were generous in their donations and their time to ensure they could go in with guns blazing.

“With the help of local councillor K.W. Mak and appointed lawyers, the legal committee went through all the development legal requirements as well as the project scope and prepared a document in the literal defence of their homes,” added Tan.

“It was also gratifying to see representatives from other Section 16 resident committees present during the objection hearing on Nov 11.”

The said development comprises 23-storey and 24-storey office blocks, a 22-storey serviced apartments, a 32-storey Soho block, a block of commercial lots as well as six floors of basement parking and four floors of above-ground parking.

“Among the objections were about erroneous land title particulars, layout plan not in accordance with Section 21B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (TCPA) as well as violation of various guidelines,” said the lawyer representing the residents, L.S. Leonard.

“The details of plot ratio, percentage of landscape, allocation of open spaces and width of inner roads were wrong and unreliable as the report and the layout plan assumed that the development site was 2ha but in fact it was 1.9ha. What was even more alarming was that the geotechnical report did not adequately provide measures for the stabilisation of neighbouring lots,” added Leonard.

As perseverance would have it, all’s well that ends well.

About a week after the objection hearing, the developer had withdrawn the application for the development of the land.

On Dec 6, the law firm received a fax from MBPJ, attached with a cover letter from the developer’s planner, stating that the company had

decided to withdraw the planning permission for the said development.

“From its inception to a lengthy proceeding, it has been an enlightening education in urban development and planning for us residents. The Section 16/9 community is today a more educated one on the nuances of development and the legal

rights of residents. With the MRT slated for development nearby and an empty plot of land, developers will be eyeing this pot of gold,” said Tan.

For now, the people who work in Phileo Damansara and the residents, can breathe easy — until another developer comes to claim their share of the pie.

From The Star