Penang Regional Development Authority (Perda) and JKP Sdn Bhd are keeping their fingers crossed that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng will not be giving them the 'turnaround' in approving their Planning Permission plans for housing projects.     

   

Penang Federal Action Council chairperson Zainal Abidin Osman said Lim deliberately used the excuse of relocating squatters in three projects about to be completed to delay approving the Planning Permission for 12 projects which do not involve squatters.

   

"The chief minister should set aside his hidden political agenda and give priority to the interest of Penang residents in all affairs," he said in a statement yesterday.

   

He was commenting on the excuse given by the state government in a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Oct 23 on why Planning Permission for 15 housing projects had not been approved.

   

Zainal Abidin ( left ) said the development projects proposed by Perda and JKP Sdn Bhd were based on the concept of mixed development and low density.   

"Perda and JKP Sdn Bhd are offering terrace houses, semi-detached and single unit houses as well as apartments with far lower density than approved by the state government, at 83 units per acre.

   

"It is different from equating the range for landed houses with the apartment concept in high density development," he said.

  

Apart from that, he said two projects applied by Perda, a mixed development project in Tok Alang and Ara Kuda in Seberang Perai district and one project by JKP Sdn Bhd in Jalan Permatang Pauh, Seberang Perai Tengah fixed the ceiling price of houses within the affordable house price set by the state government.

   

"These projects which do not involve the relocation of squatters too, have yet to be approved by the state government to date," he said. 

- Bernama