PETALING JAYA: The Selangor State Development Corp (PKNS) and Melati Ehsan Holdings Bhd joint venture (PKNS-Melati Ehsan JV) has resubmitted its application to the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) for a development order (DO) to redevelop the controversial RM1.62 billion PKNS Sports Complex in Section 7, Kelana Jaya, here.
“If they (MBPJ) don’t accept the application, then under the National Land Code, MBPJ will have to acquire the land and pay PKNS compensation based on market value as the land is classified for commercial use,” a source close to the matter told The Edge Financial Daily yesterday.
It was reported that MBPJ’s One Stop Centre committee had on June 8, 2012, rejected an earlier application from the PKNS-Melati Ehsan JV to redevelop the 34-year-old sports complex into a RM1.62 billion sports-themed mixed development, saying it was not in line with the Petaling Jaya Local Plan Two (RTPJ2).
The proposed development entails five 35-storey apartment blocks, two 15-storey business complexes, a performing arts centre and an integrated sporting hub.
However, the source said the State Appeal Board under the Selangor Town and Rural Planning Department had on April 12, 2013, allowed the PKNS-Melati Ehsan JV to resubmit its application for the DO.
The source added that the application was submitted to MBPJ at the end of last year. In a text message to The Edge Financial Daily yesterday, PKNS business development head Norzila Sidek said the PKNS-Melati Ehsan JV has yet to be granted a DO for the proposed project.
“[We] will need to know the state’s directions,” she added.
The Edge Financial Daily had on Feb 17 quoted Melati Ehsan managing director Tan Sri Yap Suan Chee as saying that the company had passed the DO to its JV partner PKNS.
“We have submitted the DO to PKNS, and we expect them to conclude it by the second quarter of 2015,” he had said, adding that Melati Ehsan was banking on the proposed project to boost its earnings this year.
Yap had also said the project project has a gross development value of RM2 billion. However, questions are being raised on the State Appeal Board’s decision to allow the PKNS-Melati Ehsan JV to resubmit its application for the DO despite a recommendation from Selangor’s Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) that the Petaling Jaya local plan is flawed.
PKNS owns the land that the PKNS Sports Complex currently sits on. The 7.5ha site came under heavy scrutiny two years ago when investigations conducted by Selcat into the RTPJ2 revealed that local and state planning authorities had arbitrarily changed the zoning of land in the city without authorisation and due process, resulting in three different versions of the same plan.
The Selcat hearing, chaired by then Selangor legislative assembly speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim in July 2012, had concluded from the investigations that the officials involved were “reckless, incompetent and unprofessional” and recommended that the RTPJ2 be scrapped as it was “tainted”.
Under the RTPJ2 approved by the state exco in 2010, the field was gazetted as an open space. However, in one of the altered versions of the local plan, the field’s land zoning was tagged as commercial.
The Selcat hearing had also revealed that the illegally amended local plan went to print on Aug 16, 2011, although PKNS had submitted the development application on Aug 24, 2011. Section 7 residents are perturbed by the recent news on the land, and are now witnessing a recurrence of looming development on the land that they had fiercely opposed three years ago. At a gathering attended by 60 people yesterday, Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen said Seri Setia assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad would raise the matter with the state exco in a meeting yesterday.
Nik Nazmi could not be reached for comment at press time.
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 26, 2015.