12/08/2024
The coalition for the preservation of the Kampung Bohol Flood retention pond successfully held a forum on Development Project at the Kg Bohol Retention Pond and Urban Renewal Development on 11th August 2024 at auditorium SRJ(C) Yoke Nam .
Here are the salient points highlighted by the panel speakers at the forum.
Dato Ng presented
a chronology of the Kg Bohol retention pond and adjacent *green* area and pointed out the issues of concern to residents living in the water basin area i.e. lack of maintenance of the pond coupled with degazetting part of it. Residents were alarmed with the speed of project approval notwithstanding safety, environmental and surrounding community concerns.
En Nasser elaborated on the issue of locus standi and legal avenues open to residents as well as administrative actions to stop/stay the development. Crowd funding is mooted where one participant pledged RM1k to get it rolling.
In relation to URDA, En Mokshin presented a very interesting case study of Sri Endah apartment where 689 walk-up units will be replaced by 3600 units of condo. Among the fear of existing owners are lack of assurance of completion of new condo, inability to find housing in the vicinity with RM1200 per month as rental offered by developer during construction period and also deferred payment subject to sales of the condo for those who wish to receive cash for compensation.
Inability to rent units close to the apartments means disruption to children schooling, workplace, etc. En Mokshin also voiced out the high monthly maintenance fees of more than RM300 compared to RM35 currently which may force out the lower income group. The impact of higher population density will be felt beyond Sri Indah boundary.
Tuan Haji Khalid Samad shared the unfortunate case of a compulsorily acquired project which till today some of the land owners are not satisfactorily compensated as it was based on govt valuation which is often much lower than market value. He pointed out that URD is good but must be carried out holistically considering all aspects including traffic, schools, amenities and demographic impact arising from population density changes. As such, it should preferably be undertaken by state owned entities based on humanitarian priorities rather than driven by private sector profit motive alone. He also commented on the purpose of deepening the Kg Bohol pond as based on his understanding, it will not help in flood mitigation. What is needed is a larger surface area (pond) to accommodate more water retention. The degazetting is doing the opposite.
The forum also heard constructive comments from the floor on the proposed 75% owners approval threshold for URD, as whatever threshold would inevitably result in aggrieved parties which our Madani govt cannot brush aside. Such policy will also cause disharmony and conflict among the existing apartment owners.
