BY WONG PEK MEI
TTDI residents out in force at Taman Rimba Kiara to show support for protecting the park from further development.
THE Taman Tun Dr Ismail Residents Association will be taking legal action to protect Taman Rimba Kiara against any proposed development.
Following the objection to a proposed housing development in Taman Rimba Kiara, Save Taman Rimba Kiara Working Group committee member Leon Koay said they had appointed a law firm to represent the RA in pursuing the matter legally.
“We are questioning if Kuala Lumpur City Hall is making the right decision.
“We believe there is plenty of legal basis for this case,” he said when met at the “Parks For People: Kawasan Hijau, Khazanah Awam” event at the park yesterday.
Koay said he could not divulge further details on the legal action including the type of recourse but they would release more details later.
The park stakeholders had been protesting against the development since the news of the project was made public last year.
There are plans to build eight blocks of between 42 and 54-storey high-end serviced apartments, while another 29-storey block comprising 350 units of affordable housing will be allocated to the TTDI longhouse residents.
The development includes the construction of a six-lane highway and a flyover to accommodate the massive growth in population density from 74 to 979 people per acre.
TTDI residents are only agreeable to the construction of the affordable public housing and not for the luxury condominiums that will take up part of the park.
TTDI Residents Association vice-chairman Clinton Ang said the association would work with a few Joint Management Bodies from the nearby condominiums that were affected by the development, on the legal action.
“The committee is coordinating with the JMBs and TTDI RA. The RA is one of the many litigants in this legal battle,” he added.
Koay said they found out recently from plans obtained from Federal Territories Kuala Lumpur Survey and Mapping Department, that 47.5% of the park would be encroached by the development.
“There have been lots of allegations that the development is not encroaching into the park, which is inaccurate.
“We are now providing factual information on the proposed development,” he said.
He added that they had set up a technical team, which would include architects and town planners, to come up with an alternative design for the development.
“As we have said previously, we are not against providing permanent housing for the longhouse residents but it can be implemented without this mega development.
“We believe it can be done in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, without encroaching into the park,” said Koay.
He also pointed out that based on Pemandu’s Annual Reports in 2010, Kuala Lumpur had 12sq m of green area per capita.
“However, in the 2013 Annual Report, it was stated that there were about 11sq m of green space per person.
“The overall trend in the last seven years is that there is a reduction, rather than an increase, of the number of square metres of green area per capita,” he said.
Also present at the event was a TTDI longhouse resident Gothai Vengidesalam, 36, who is the third generation to live there.
Gothai said that she thought the development would be only one building for the longhouse residents and another building for a condominium but did not expect eight blocks.
“We do not want this park to be affected. I myself come here a lot,” she said.
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