Council chief IN HOT SOUP over re-zoning of golf club land for housing

The Hulu Selangor District Council (MDHS) is in hot water for rejecting a developer's application to re-zone recreational land for housing development in Serendah – and then making the application on the developer's "behalf".

Its reason for doing so? It was a case of the council making up for its mistake in allowing the developer to build houses on the plot even before the area had been rezoned for housing.

These startling facts emerged at a public hearing on Monday to convert the Serendah Golf Club and its surroundings for up-market bungalows.

Golf club members and owners of houses near the golf course were stunned when council president Tukiman Nail maintained stoic silence after being asked to explain his actions.

The hearing, before Selangor exco members Iskandar Abdul Samad and Elizabeth Wong, among others, heard that:
» several structures have been built on the land although the re-zoning has not been done;
» the council did not seek the residents' views before approving the construction;
» an illegal access road has been built, cutting across the fairways of the course;
» the flow of water from a nearby waterfall has been blocked;
» the council failed to respond to complaints from residents on the illegal works being carried out;
» the council refused to issue a stop work order to the developer despite being aware of illegal structures being built; and
» although permission was given to refurbish an "existing" club house, several show houses were being built.

Lawyer Derek Fernandez told theSun that it is wrong to have a hearing to consider amendments to the local plan when pre-conditions had not been complied with.

"Since the amendment is being proposed by the local authority under Section 16(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act, the actual draft amendment must be prepared only after an opportunity is given to all interested parties to make representations and this must be advertised in newspapers.

"Only after this mandatory requirement to make representations is given, can the actual draft be prepared and advertised for statutory objections," he said.

These requirements were not met by the council, which nevertheless tried to bulldoze the application.

Fernandez said that the starting point in any change must be the approval of the full board of the council. It is not immediately known if this was done although records indicate that the full board rejected the developer's application in April last year.

The application for re-zoning, he said, can only be done if studies on sustainability, traffic and social impact are prepared and made available to the public, justifying the need for change and how it would enhance public interests for the whole local plan.

Fernandez said: "Amendments to the local plan cannot be treated lightly as it is a serious matter, especially if the policies in the old local plan have not been realised or the promised infrastructure honoured.

"The local plan is a social agreement between the government and the people and must be honoured unless there are cogent grounds to amend it."

He said such changes cannot be considered for individual interests or profit; they should benefit the community as a whole.

Besides, amendments should not be considered where there are existing violations of the law in the zones sought to be amended and no action taken as this will cause severe loss of public confidence in the government, he added.

Iskandar said that the objections had been recorded and would be presented to the State Planning Committee which would make a decision on the matter.

In the meantime, he said the State Government has ordered MDHS to set up a task force to look into complaints on illegal structures and other discrepancies.

The Sundaily