Know our rights and stand up for what we stand for! ~~~ Junz Wong The importance of Town Planning presented during DAPSY Sabah forum held on 18 Oct I urge KK residents to be more aware of the importance of town planning and actively participate in public consultation bcos bad town planning in KK is adversely affecting our lives in so many negative ways! Public should persistently involve in the town planning process when DBKK publishes the draft plan for public consultation. Dont wait till its too late then complain about it. Participate in public consultation and file official objections if any affecting your surrounding areas before it was too late and done. First awareness :- DBKK and 24 other districts should come out with respective gazetted structure plans - projecting the future developments and get them approved by TYT. Simply gazetted the plans aint good enough bcos it leaves room for many undesirable incidents. The last approved structure plan in KK was 36 years ago. How pathetic!? Without approved plans, town planning ordinance has been abused by the authorities. Few examples to mention were: 1) proposed 266 units of 4-storeys commercial building at the end of airport runway which was previously zoned under GREEN PARK 2) Signal hill condo which is currently in court case 3) proposed 500 units of low cost houses @ Austral Park open space. Open space r often being violated and used to build houses instead of community facilities. Second awareness :- Proper town planning can resolve many problems faced by us today gradually if we participate and rectify them. For example; 1) flash flood problem | Pressure DBKK to reinstate the designated detention ponds to cope with flood problems. Current Drainage system is no longer able to cope with the flood problems. 2) without proper planning & complying with development procedures according to the town planning ordinance will contribute our problems! Hill cutting without proper drainage precautions measures during construction, has contributed to massive landslide. 3) traffic problems | pressure DBKK to establish the public transportation to fix congestion problems and create more parking I m of the opinion that traffic problem is also created by the fact the developments were approved at the wrong location at the wrong scale. Govt should be the one planning for future developments but sadly in Sabah, its quite the opposite bcos developers decide how KK city should be developed. Thus some areas in KK city has been over developed without taking into consideration the already congested traffic situations. Just look at these few instances ; Kepayan areas - there are easily 3 or 4 condo developments/proposals either on going OR approved OR in the process of getting approvals which will only make the traffic problems worse. Along Jln Bundusan and surrounding area alone already have so many condo proposals or on going developments which includes a mega mall. The govt has conveniently approved these projects in the name of developments and has failed to take into account how the people living in those areas gonna deal with the lack power supply, sewerage problem, community facilities, schools etc Govt also appears to be rushing low cost housing projects at the wrong scale and at the wrong locations. Few instances are Kiansom areas, Telipok and recently Kinarut (moved from Pulau Gaya). What the govt has failed here is that they have failed to understand that there is actually greater need for the low cost housing residents to be living near to schools, their work places, community places, public transportation, shops etc Without proper planning for low cost houses, it will lead to power supply, clean water supply, sewerage treatment problem, traffic problem and it can later on breed into social problems, develop into prime crime area as well. This must not be taken lightly in the expense of the community in established neighborhoods and KK city as a whole. Last two examples I would like to illustrate before closing my note are : 1) KPJ hospital KPJ hospital was a complete mistake and a disaster to residents living in Damai areas as well as the patients going to hospital for treatments. Firstly why put two hospitals in one same area instead of building the hospital in another strategic location? Secondly the traffic is horrendous! Can we imagine the painful experiences our patients, old folks and sick people, the nurses doctors and the surrounding residents, have to go through every day to seek medical treatments, to go home in the congested areas with so many schools around? There is no planning for bus stop nor public transportation system which is pathetic. Thirdly the ambulance has to rush through the always congested Jln Damai to send the patients to the hospital which could mean a life lost. I still couldnt understand why Jln Bersatu was built with 10mil cost but later closed back to one - way lane. 2) Metro Town Ambulance has to take one whole round the metro town before it could send the patient into the on going construction of the hospital. There is no ambulance short cut entry ? There is obviously lack of parking at Metro Town so what kind of proper planning is that ? Wheres d sewerage treatment planning during the construction period of the hospital ? Structures which look permanent were built along the drainage system for the workers to stay. That would directly contribute to dirty drainage and rivers. What kind of planning is that? N I heard this Metro Town developer is the one who has been given the task to build TAED project. What a joke!? Sadly all the above are mistakes that are irreversible ! Eventually our younger generations are gonna pay for it. I once again call on KK residents to be actively participating in KK city town planning process and act as the check and balance agents to ensure govt doesnt take our future for granted and rather be responsible for what they have done wrongly without compliance of the town planning ordinance.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 04:20:06 +0000
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