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Residents win
fight to keep residential land status
09/01/2009 NST By Halim Said
SHAH ALAM: Subang Galaksi house buyers got their wish to have a piece of vacant
land behind their units kept as residential land -- and they have Shah Alam
mayor Mazalan Md Noor to thank for it.
The developers, Sohock, and Garden Build. subsidiaries of Merge Housing, had
submitted an application to the Shah Alam City Council late last year to convert
the usage of several plots of land in the area.
However, at a recent public forum, Merge Housing said the mayor had requested
that that plot of land be retained for residential use.
"We will comply with the mayor's request. But we will wait until the matter
has been endorsed by the council," said Merge Housing executive director Anthony
Michael.
Anthony said the vacant land, which is adjacent to the Subang Galaksi housing
scheme, was initially identified for industrial usage 15 years ago.
"However, the former developer failed to develop the land and after the project
was abandoned, we took over the ownership of the land. In 2002, we set aside
the land for residential development as there was a high demand for housing
property then," he said.
Following the recent drop in demand for houses, the company decided to convert
the land back to its original status.
Mazalan said the council had allowed the developer to change the status of
two other plots of land in the area to commercial and residential.
"One of the plots has been amended from low and medium-cost apartment development
to commercial development while the other plot, which is an area of open space,
will house the apartments," said Mazalan, adding that the matter would be
discussed by the council committee before endorsement in a full-board meeting.
The 45-minute public forum was also attended by some 30 house buyers of Subang
Galaksi and other residents.
House buyer Ng Chee Chong, 42, was happy with the outcome of the meeting.
"I hope the decision to maintain the land for residential development will
be written in black and white so that this problem will not recur," he said.
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