KUALA LUMPUR – Fears of overdevelopment at Federal Hill continue to grip conservationists after the green lung, among the few sizeable ones in the capital, was excluded from the Kuala Lumpur Structural Plan 2040 (KLSP2040) draft.
The hill’s omission from the KLSP, currently available for public scrutiny, leaves it vulnerable to commercial use, such as in 2012 when listed property giant SP Setia Bhd engaged in a land swap deal with the government.
That incident continues to grip activists such as Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) senior adviser Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor who still believes SP Setia has further plans to develop the hill.
“I only hope they are not planning to build another high-rise building that will create multifarious problems like traffic, pollution, and destroy the green lung of Federal Hill,” Salleh told The Vibes.
While there are no publicly known proposals by SP Setia, he is not ruling out future plans.
“I’m sure they (SP Setia) did not invest that much money into that (area) just to maintain the greenery,” Salleh said.
On November 29, 2012, SP Setia’s jointly owned unit Setia Federal Hill Sdn Bhd had entered into an agreement to undertake the development and construction of a new integrated and research complex for the government to be located within Setia Alam.
In exchange, the government swapped some 52 acres of prime land near Bangsar, on which the group plans to develop an integrated luxury residential and commercial development, to be known as Setia Federal Hill.
SP Setia honoured its promises to build the health facility, now known as National Institute of Health in Setia Alam.
As for its Federal Hill project, the property developer had almost completed its 12-storey apartment. But hanging in the balance is the development order for the mega project.
SP Setia was not available for comment when asked by The Vibes on the status of the large-scale development.
A ‘very grave concern’
Meanwhile, former MNS board of trustees chairman John Koh Seng Siew said KLSP2040’s antecedent, KLSP2020, was a more “enlightened plan” as it broached the topic of a garden city.
“But with this (KLSP2040), the green areas have somehow or rather disappeared. So that's a very grave concern.”
MNS as well as other environmental groups are pushing for the gazettement of the hill, citing environmental and heritage concerns as Koh believes the area stands as a “jewel of the city”.
Since the late 1980s to early 1900s, Federal Hill has been the site for colonial-style bungalows and semi-detached houses that served as living quarters for British officers and clerks.
Many of those properties were later converted into quarters for Malaysian civil servants.
The low-density area is also rich in flora and fauna, with more than 234 species, including bats, 65 types of birds, six species of amphibians, two types of fireflies, 39 kinds of butterflies and moths.
In February, then Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan said the KLSP2040 would provide oversight to the city's development for the next two decades to ensure sustainability and prosperity to all of its occupants.
But Koh argued that if the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) wanted the capital to be “one of the most livable” in the world, opening up Federal Hill was not the way.
He said an 18-page appeal letter had been submitted to DBKL in April and signed by 12 environmental groups.
The letter demanded, among others, raised the fact that Federal Hill was not recognised as a “green area” but merely a “residential area”, and that neither its biodiversity nor historical significance, were recognised.
Federal Hill was named to commemorate the formation of the Malay Federation in 1948. – The Vibes, October 5, 2020
