THE Pakatan Harapan government has gone back on its word to pass the KL City Plan 2020 with the original zoning in place, said local government expert Derek Fernandez.

He said this today while highlighting the struggle of residents fighting development around the Institut Kesihatan Umum Malaysia Complex in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

Fernandez, a lawyer who was called in by some residents to look into their objections to the rezoning, said Kuala Lumpur City Hall had quietly changed the zoning of the area when the KL City Plan 2020 was controversially passed in October.

The zoning was changed from a public institutional area to mixed development without conducting a public hearing, contravening the Federal Territory (Planning) Act 1982.

“They never displayed (the changes) for public objection, and no inquiry has been held in relation to their proposal.

“The act was never complied with for this particular change of zoning,” Fernandez, who is also a Petaling Jaya councilor,  told reporters after a meeting with the residents.

This follows the discovery in 2010 by residents that the Bangsar Utama area around Jalan Abdullah was going to be gazetted a major commercial zone.

In 2012, Setia Federal Hill entered a privatisation agreement to build an integrated health and research complex for the government in Setia Alam, Shah Alam.

In exchange, the government agreed to swap the 51.57 acres of prime land in Bangsar occupied by IKUM, where the group plans to embark on a mixed-commercial development of luxury residential and office units.

“It was made abundantly clear (in the draft of the KL City Plan 2020) that the land was to be institutionally zoned with zero rights for commercial development,” said Fernandez.

“This proposal was never displayed. It also contravenes the KL Structure Plan, which says you can only use such land for government or public facility purposes.

“Right now, all the residents can do is push their MPs and tie up the developers in court,” he said. – May 13, 2019.