KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — When two long-time residents of Taman Desa here made plans to meet a guest at “the park”, they were perturbed when they were asked which one.
While the guest had reasonably expected the area with tens of thousands of residents to have several, Philip Phang said the Jalan Desa Ria park was now painfully unique.
“This is only public playground we have left. So far, it seems safe from any high-rise development.
“The authorities are in the midst of upgrading the football field that is connected to this playground, so, for now, it’s safe to say that the playground will remain,” the Save Taman Desa Coalition spokesman told Malay Mail.
The park is the area’s only remaining recreational space with a football field, tennis and basketball courts as well as a community centre. It was meant to cater to 10,000 residents, but must now serve up to 50,000.
Another park along Jalan 3/109f was sold to a developer and boarded up last year.
Taman Desa is an established residential area in Old Klang Road and is strategically located close to the city centre, connected by major highways including Federal Highway, New Pantai Expressway and Salak Expressway.
As of year 2020, Taman Desa’s population stood at 36,029.
In 2017, another park in the area was demolished to make way for the 52-storey SkyVogue Residences.
At the time, residents had protested and demanded for the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to explain how a land parcel that was gazetted as a library and park ended up being alienated for a high-rise property project.
Phang said resident were not notified of the change until it was already in effect.
“Not only did we lose a public open space, residents closest to the 52-storey building have been living in fear since the commencement of the development,” Phang said.
Too close for comfort
Below SkyVogue Residences is Armada Villa, a low-density gated residential area of 45 semi-detached homes spread across 2.3 hectares and completed in March 2013. The project was a joint venture project between a developer and DBKL.
A resident who requested anonymity said that when he moved in to Armada Villa five years, he had no idea about the high-rise project.
“In the last four years I have been putting up with dangerous objects falling into my garden, and we never dared step out anymore,” the resident claimed when met at his unit.
Since the project began, residents have found various construction items in and around their compounds, such as scaffolding, rods, planks, and more that they believe to have fallen.
Those in the vicinity were concerned about such objects possibly dropping onto them outside their homes, the resident said
The resident also claimed to have lost over RM50,000 worth of bonsai plants and koi fishes, allegedly due to exposure to chemical residue from the project.
“The developer has offered compensation for some of the damages, but can they guarantee our safety in the future?” said the resident.
For now, a stop-work order has been issued over the construction of a structure at the entrance of SkyVogue due to the proximity to a residential home.
There is a requirement for a buffer zone of 85ft between the construction and the nearest home, which was not met.
The resident said this was patently clear to anyone who would care to inspect the distance.
“The structure is not even 10cm apart from the wall of the unit located nearest to their entrance,” the resident said, saying this was unprecedented anywhere in the city.
Losing battle
Still, this is not the first project against which residents have objected. In November 2017, they tried to block a high-rise project on formerly Tenaga National Berhad (TNB) reserve land along Jalan Desa Bakti 2 that eventually became The Address I and II.
At the time, they had challenged the project’s approval on the parcel that was earmarked as a green lung in the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 (KLCP 2020) which was gazetted in 2018.
The construction was also eventful. In 2018, a crane toppled over during the construction of The Address I, and damaged the adjoining Tiara Faber Condominium.
In 2020, a slab from one of the 37-storey blocks under construction collapsed after heavy rain.
Such incidents have shattered residents’ views of what was once a tranquil and quiet enclave in the city, said Phang, a resident since 1978.
“We are not against development, but all we ask for is that they are done sustainably,” Phang said.
“Is this the way forward? Are they slowly taking away the scarcely available green lung that is left in Taman Desa, replacing them with concrete?”
High-rise projects have altered the area, he said, as have other changes made to accommodate these.
Phang said there is talk that the authorities would reopen Jalan Morib to provide access to the proposed Aetas Taman Desa project that, despite its name, is not within Taman Desa.
The road was previously closed after the Papillon Desahill Condominium (formerly Taman Bukit Tenaga) was developed.
It had connected Papillon to the Laksamana Apartments, built in the 1980s is a townhouse-style residential apartment and is the first strata property in Old Klang Road.
Driving through the neighbourhood, Phang pointed out notable sites including an old tennis court where the late Tun Abdul Ghafar Baba used to host matches for his guests.
Fellow Save Taman Desa Coalition committee member M. Gunasekar said their efforts to stave off such development was also no longer receiving the same level of attention from politicians as before the 2018 general election.
While he and Phang were able to rally support from every Pakatan Harapan candidate contesting for a seat in the city then, Gunasekar said this was no longer the case.
“But after GE14 was over, everybody did not want to attend our meetings anymore,” Gunasekar said.
‘How are they going to do it?’
The group said the issue was not just with high-end development, saying the Residensi Suria Madani project that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim recently launched was also part of the conversation.
Phang said the the affordable housing project is to be developed by Mah Sing Group as part of the larger M Aspira development project.
“But the location, it’s right next to the SMART (Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel) flood retention pond; we don’t know how they are going to do it,” Phang said.
In 2017, the same plot was alienated for a mixed development that fell through when it could not meet the requirements, such as guaranteeing that construction would not affect the capacity of the retention pond that was a key part of the city’s flood control mechanism.
According to The Star in May 2023, the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) had pushed for technical requirements to be met before any proposed development is approved.
SMART chief operating officer Mohd Noor Mohd Ali said in the same report that it would be impossible to guarantee this given the magnitude of the development.
In July, Federal Territories Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the land surrounding the flood retention pond was sold to Mah Sing Group Bhd via an open tender for the construction of 800 affordable housing units at the developer’s expense.
The land had been reclaimed from developer Aset Kayamas during Khalid Samad’s tenure as the Federal Territories minister.
