Move out or face demolition, KL City Hall tells church in Kepong

A Methodist church in Kepong has been ordered by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to move out in 14 days or face demolition, the Star reported.

The eviction notice dated February 4 is the second issued to the church in Taman Sri Bintang, allegedly for violating Section 26 of the Federal Territories (Planning) Act 1982, for changing the land use from kindergarten to church without a development order.

The first notice by DBKL was issued on September 19.

According to pastor Kok Chin Ngin, the church committee had applied to change the use of the land with the authorities soon after they received the first notice.

As such, he said, he was surprised that the second eviction notice is over the same alleged violation.

Kok is hoping that DBKL will allow the church committee the needed time to complete the change in the land use.

"About 800 worshippers come to our church on a regular basis. If they seal or demolish the building, where are they supposed to go to?" said Kok.

Local Conference executive committee chairman Paul Ong said the church had initially obtained an extension of the deadline from DBKL after the first eviction notice was issued.

According to Ong, this was done through Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor's office.

Following this, the church engaged a DBKL-approved architect to work on the building plan and apply for land use conversion.

However, DBKL responded that some changes were needed, but at that time, the architect was overseas.

The authorities then reportedly held another meeting and issued the second eviction notice.

Another committee member, Richard Lim, said that while they had initially planned to build a kindergarten within the compound, the plan was shelved due to the high number of such facilities in the area.

The church has been operating since 1984, when it was based in a housing estate in Kepong.

It moved to the current site when the number of worshippers increased, it was reported.

According to Ong, they had also sought the help of the FT Ministry's non-Muslim places of worship special committee to get an extension from DBKL to complete the conversion exercise.