The Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) has revealed that the previous BN state government had approved 37 projects which are over 250 feet (76.2 metres) before March 2008.

NONE MPPP president Pattahiyah Ismail ( right ) said these projects had obtained the necessary planning approvals as early as 1985 to March 2008.

Many of these projects have been completed or have begun development work, she added, saying that as such nothing could be done about those projects now.

"However, for those which have yet to start work, they will be referred to the state planning committee, which is chaired by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng," she told a press conference in Penang today.

Pattahiyah said plans which have been approved are valid for a year and can be renewed annually, up to five years, before developers start actual ground work.

"To the public, it would seem as if we have been approving projects (for locations above 76.2 metres high) but they are just renewals. There are no fresh approvals under this administration," she said.

Tanjung Bungah George Town view 02 Pattahiyah said between April 2008 to May this year, 19 projects above 250 ft have been approved under the special projects  under the State Structural Plan of 2007.

She added that these are projects that had been previously approved were approved based on MPPP's Development Control and Policy Plan on September 13, 1996.

"Under the Economic Planning Unit of the federal government in 2002, a hill is defined as land that is above 150 metres above sea level," she said.

Dying hills and greenery

The current Pakatan-led state government has been fighting off criticisms that it is developer friendly to the extent of approving hillslope projects.

Lim’s opponents have been accusing the CM of being responsible for the "dying" hills and greenery of Penang island.

NONE Lim ( left ), who is also DAP secretary-general, has been adamant that his government has not approved any hillslope development projects.

On Sunday, Lim met with residents from Sungai Ara who are being affected by a hillslope development project approved in 1996.

Lim had assured the residents that if Pakatan Rakyat comes to power in Putrajaya, no hillslope development would be approved.

He explained that the MPPP implements a checklist system during approvals of projects and developers who comply with the council's guidelines would obtain the necessary go-ahead to start work.

"However, if any boxes (in the checklist) are not ticked, approvals would be held back. This is to cut the abuses that had been happening in the past," he said.

NONE "The state government (or state executive councillors) do not interfere in the process," he added.

"That is why sometimes we get to know of it only when it is already in the newspapers, just like the man on the street," he stressed.

For MPPP approvals, no state exco members sit on the one-stop committee board that approves projects, which Pattahiyah chairs.

Lim was responding to the 20-odd residents who are complaining about the safety of their homes due to "rampant tragedies of landslides".

Batu Maung assemblyman Abdul Malik Abul Kassim, who was at the dialogue, said the matter was currently at the state's appeal board for consideration.

"I have spoken to the developer to hold their application for a building plan approval," he said.

"We have asked them to exercise some goodwill and they have withdrawn the building plan application until the case is disposed off by the Appeals Board," he added.