‘Secret decision’ to allow factories in housing area

CAP blasts Penang government for flouting law, demands area be rezoned immediately.

GEORGE TOWN: The Consumers Association of Penang has accused state authorities of breaching the law by allowing conversions of shophouses for industrial premises on Penang island and demanded immediate action to rezone affected shophouses as residential areas again.

CAP president SM Mohamed Idris said the State Planning Committee had surreptitiously approved the conversion of several shophouses in Desa Jelita in Permatang Damar Laut, Batu Maung, in 2012.

Information relayed to CAP through the Public Complaints Bureau showed that the committee had confirmed on June 14, 2012 a decision made a month earlier to approve the conversion. He said the conversion was based on guidelines prepared by the Development Planning Department of the then municipal council.

Idris said industrial activities in houses and shophouses in residential zones were forbidden by the Town and Country Planning Act, and said the decisions by the department and the committee was contrary to the law.

“But the authorities had violated the law and legalised factory operations in residential zone,” said Idris in a statement here today.

He said the sanctity of residential zones in Penang was now at the mercy of the whims and fancies of the department and the state committee.

He pointed out that the SPC had previously also secretly approved the conversion of Bukit Relau from hill reserve land into a residential zone. A public outcry ensued after land clearing activities began, with residents now referring to it as “Bukit Botak”.

Idris said the Penang State Structure Plan called for ensuring a quality, comfortable and good life for its citizens in order for the state to achieve developed status.

Pointing to state government billboards trumpeting “Cleaner, Greener, Safer & Healthier Penang” all over the state, Idris asked: “Is it comfortable to live with factories beside your house?

“We don’t suppose any of those involved in the rezoning of the shophouses in Desa Jelita have factories as their neighbours. Could the SPC tell us how factories in residential zones make Penang cleaner, greener, safer and healthier with the pollution they bring into the residential zones?”

In February 2010, a public complaint was lodged to the municipal council to take action on illegal factories in Desa Jelita. Idris said the council had then admitted that it was illegal for factories to be operating in residential zones, and had told CAP that it would accumulate evidence to prosecute the illegal industrial operator.

Later CAP was informed that MPPP had faced difficulties in enter the factories and obtaining evidence. “When asked about other actions to be taken, the MPPP went into silent mode,” said Idris.

He said the state authorities were sending a wrong message that factory operators could now operate illegally in residential zones assured that no legal action would be taken on complaints because the council could produce its guidelines and rubber-stamped approval of SPC for residential areas to be rezoned to industrial.

He condemned the SPC of not being accountable to residents: it was akin to stabbing them in the back as they purchased their properties in the belief that residential zones were out of bounds to industrial activities.

“Is this how development planning is done in Penang to improve the quality of life of Penangites? If the SPC can overrule the law, why have the law?” said Idris.

CAP now demands that the council to restore status of the shophouses in Desa Jelita to its original residential zone immediately.

Idris said extra revenue earned via the conversion should not be the reason to lower the quality of life of the people and set a damaging precedent.

He disapproved the SPC direction as the wrong way to lead Penang to attain a developed status.

“Develop to improve quality of life, not degrade it,” reminded Idris.