MPPP defends controversial 27-storey Moulmein project
GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) has come out in defence of the controversial 27-storey Moulmein Rise luxury suites project in Pulau Tikus and will carry on as planned despite the ongoing online signature petition campaign by non-governmental organisation Citizen Chant Group (Chant) to stop it.
In a press conference earlier, MPPP president Datuk Patahiyah Ismail questioned the credibility of the ongoing petition, as it was discovered that over 20 councillors, including herself, had 'protested' against the project.
"On the website, my name, alongside 24 others (names of councillors) were stated on the website. Apparently we have gone against the project, but the truth is, we did not (go against the project)," Patahiyah said.
She, together with other council members showed the press an email received by the Change.org polling site where the petition was being hosted, acknowledging their participation.
"Now, anybody could just enter a name and email and be against the project," Patahiyah said.
On one of the complaints raised by Chant adviser Yan Lee, she said the residents were given ample of time to object as stipulated under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976, saying five objection sessions were held from 2008 to 2011 for those living within the 20m from the site boundary.
She said the five objection sessions were held on Feb 14, 2008 with 19 people attending, Oct 20, 2009 (19), May 25, 2011 (18), July 12 (5) and Aug 16 (1).
Patahiyah defended the council's conversion of the land from commercial to residential and suggested an alternative location for the car park for users of the Pulau Tikus market.
"More than 50 per cent of the project is already commercial, the remainder was residential so we have decided to rezone the piece of land to commercial status,
"As for the temporary car park, the nearby Axis Complex would serve as a temporary car park with 134 lots for those going to the market," he said.
On the developer 'skirting' the affordable houses requirement, she said the project was not a SoHo (Small office Home office) project but a 'commercial suite', so the developer need not build affordable homes, as required.
Patahiyah allayed fears that the public car park would be taken over by the management committee upon completion, saying that there was a caveat in the planning permission requiring made that the car park should be open for 24 hours.
"We have put a condition, that they need to have a car park on the basement, and the car park must be open for 24 hours," she said.
State local government and traffic management committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow, who was also present, said the developer, who had built the First Avenue mall in town, would deliver a public car park of the same standard.
"The car park would be as good as the one in First Avenue mall. It will be opened in eight or nine months' time and the road users have to bear with the temporary inconvenience while waiting for its completion," he said.
Chow added that the as recommended by the Traffic Impact Assesment study, the Jalan Moulmein stretch to Jalan Pasar would be made into one way to alleviate traffic after the completion of the project.
"In the meantime, we are planning to start off with the one-way system soon, taking account to the heavy traffic during peak hours there," he said.
Meanwhile, Lee, went contacted by the New Straits Times, said he noticed someone had signed the petition using Patahiyah's and other councillors' names.
"I immediately sent emails to Patahiyah, and councillors Lim Mah Hui and Harvinder Singh, which I have spotted in the petitioners' list, in order to verify if they had signed it," he said.
In reaction to Patahiyah's claims, Lee said he would ensure that every single signatory would be independently verified before it was handed over to the council.
The project was in the spotlight after MPPP had given it the green light, and had irked residents and Pulau Tikus Market users who were worried about the traffic build-up and the mammoth structure which would sprout out in the area.
The piece of private land, bounded by the Jalan Moulmein-Jalan Pasar- Lengkok Moulmein, was a former open-air car park serving the business area nearby and the nearby market.
The project, taking place on a land measuring nearly 40,000 sq ft (3,700 sq m), will offer 84 residential units, 27 commercial units with 290 car park bays, and 90 of them public.
Many residents interviewed in the past months felt that the project was too close for comfort, and it had further compounded the lack of parking space problem in Pulau Tikus.
Read more: MPPP defends controversial 27-storey Moulmein project - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/mppp-defends-controversial-27-storey-moulmein-project-1.240025#ixzz2OHcivE3l
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