16/04/2003 The Star
The Penang Municipal Council should review its policy on
high-rise housing projects to require developers to allocate two
parking lots per apartment unit to meet the high number of vehicle
ownership on the island.
State executive councillor Datuk Kee Phaik Cheen said there was a
pressing need for car parking facilities, especially at high-rise
housing areas, as many households now owned more than one vehicle.
“There are now more vehicles than households in Penang where each
household has an average of 2.4 vehicles.
“Most of the time, the second or third vehicle has to be parked
on road curbs outside their apartment compound, causing much
inconvenience to other road users.
“It will be good if the council can get housing developers to
allocate two parking lots per unit and have the house buyer pay for
both lots,” she said at the Bandar Bayan Baru Residents
Association.
Kee, who is Batu Uban assemblyman, said developers of new
highrises should be encouraged to build multi-storey car parks,
noting that there were inadequate car parks at many apartment
blocks.
On a different matter, Kee said the council should create
dumpsites with garbage bins for residents to throw their non-daily
rubbish, such as old furniture, tree branches and electrical goods.
“The population in Bayan Baru is fast growing and there are now
some 200,000 residents who produce quite a large amount of garbage.
“It is always a problem when residents want to discard big items,
and most of the time such items end up in the river or the sea,” she
said
