MANY are furious that the Kuala Lumpur City Plan (KLCP) 2020 was gazetted on Oct 30 without first getting their feedback.

The move infuriated several MPs who had even pledged in their GE14 election manifesto to make changes to the Draft Plan as they felt that it needed some changes.

The draft KLCP 2020, which was launched in 2008 and finalised in 2012, was not gazetted by the previous administration.

Constant changes were made to the finalised plan over the years.

“Now that the Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad bulldozed through the KLCP 2020 without their consent, the MPs are disappointed.

“No non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were consulted also,” a source said.

The Save Kuala Lumpur (SKL) committee, an NGO advocating city planning that protects communities, environment and future, had wanted to see the draft KLCP 2020 before it was gazetted.

SKL deputy chairman M. Ali said they too were disappointed by the news.

“The FT Minster promised SKL on July 26 this year that he would arrange with DBKL to show and brief us on the Plan.

“Despite frequent calls and messages to the ministry, no such arrangement was made.

“Now, city dwellers have a mutilated and butchered city plan. We are disappointed as the people were misled by the new Government.

“It is our strong hope that the concerned agencies and parties would ensure that the forthcoming draft KLCP 2040 would go through a proper, transparent, open and people-centric engagement right from day one,” added Ali.

Khalid earlier said that there were objections to gazette the KLCP 2020 based on what was finalised in 2012 due to the many infringements, but would still push it through to avoid further delay.

He also said the plan would be attached with an addendum on developments that were contrary to the plan.

He said the infringements in the current plan and new additions would be taken into consideration in the draft KLCP 2040 which will kick off next year and hopefully gazetted by 2020.

Planning and local government expert Derek Fernandez said the gazette had put an end to the years of abuse in planning and development control in the city.

“The city was without proper planning, the public hearings were ignored and ad hoc planning was causing misery to the people.

“The deviations from plan put in a separate addendum is the correct approach, but why such deviations were allowed and who benefited from them must be investigated.

“For the moment, any application for a development order inconsistent with the draft must be rejected.

“No doubt the KLCP 2020 will have to be revised to take into account existing buildings built in violation of the plan and decide how to mitigate the damage done.

“However, this is the first real step towards sustainable development in Kuala Lumpur, and much more needs to be done to repair the damage in trust between the city people and DBKL,” he said.