A moratorium on development?

By KW Mak
http://thenutgraph.com/a-moratorium-on-development

BUKIT Gasing assemblyperson Edward Lee has been working on a proposal for the Selangor government to implement a five-year moratorium on development in Petaling Jaya (PJ).

The proposal is intended to complement the Selangor government's plan to allocate RM10 billion to redevelop PJ and Klang. It is also meant to reflect public sentiments on wanting to see an improvement in the overall services in PJ sans private development projects.

A cessation of large-scale development would enable the state government to fund studies on traffic, drainage and other issues of public interest in PJ. Such studies are estimated to take at least a year but they will provide long-term solutions to such problems.

Benefits

Developers are expected to argue that the five-year moratorium will destroy thousands of jobs overnight

This proposal isn't meant to punish developers though they would probably argue that such a moratorium would destroy thousands of jobs overnight. On the contrary, infrastructure projects identified by the study would be awarded back to the developers.

Such a massive study of the city would require input from experts like architects, engineers and traffic consultants. The implementation of these ideas would in turn create jobs for construction workers.

To illustrate the long-term benefits for property developers, I will use the empty plots of land in Kelana Jaya along the LDP highway as an example.

The public are steadfastly opposed to plans for large-scale projects along the highway. Their objections are backed by the LDP concessionaire who warns of worsening traffic conditions should any medium-scale development be allowed. Hence, even if these projects are approved at present, they may not take off as envisioned by the developer.

Without the research during the moratorium, developers may not get what they envision anyway

Also going against the developers is the imposed limitation for development in the area with the 2.5 plot ratio^[1] set by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) town planning department, as opposed to the requested plot ratio average of 4.0 by the developers.

Hence, it would be better for the developers to support the moratorium by getting the state government to pay them to do the necessary road infrastructure works that would ensure the conditions around their project are capable of supporting the intended 4.0 plot ratio.

If development in the area proceeds without addressing existing traffic problems, this will only increase traffic volume along the LDP Highway and possibly hamper the area's commercial growth.

Flooded with problems

The lack of care for a development project's surrounding area doesn't just cause traffic problems but floods as well.

In Section 19 PJ, residents living in single-storey linked houses have been complaining about floods that started occurring just a few years ago. The floods began following the commencement of high-density development that replaced former squatter houses in the area.

30-year-old drains are too small to handle larger volumes of rainwater
(Weather warning signs ©Kriss Szkurlatowski; flooded roads ©Rombough; source: sxc.hu)

Planning for these development projects did not take into account the surrounding neighbourhood's drainage infrastructure. The drains there are more than 30-years-old. These drains are too small to handle the larger volume of rainwater that is no longer being absorbed into the ground because of built-up development.

And simply making bigger drains will not solve flooding problems. MBPJ engineers have advised that all the old drains need to be re-designed to handle both rainwater volume and the flow speed to ensure that the water doesn't get deposited in low-lying areas too fast.

This can only be done when the drainage system is looked at in totality, taking into account existing and future developments. Any attempt to re-design the drainage system without a moratorium could potentially make a planned drainage system fix redundant when more development projects come up.

Consultation

All the arguments I have proposed are only a fraction of the potential benefits that developers and residents will experience from the moratorium. Detractors may argue that the proposal does not address many other concerns that they may have.

This is where feedback from stakeholders will help in developing this proposal. What happens next will depend entirely on the input that is provided. In the end, the success or failure of the moratorium depends on public support.

1. ^ The plot ratio for development basically means the amount of floor space that the developer is allowed to build over the land. A plot ratio of 10.0 means that the buildings can encompass the total of 10 times the amount of floor space that is on the land, which would result in tall skyscrapers like the KLCC Twin Towers. A plot ratio of 1.0 means either a single-storey building that fills up the boundary of the land or a double-storey building that is built on just half the size of the land.