A resolution to the three and a half-year dispute over the Ukay Heights hillside development project is in sight after all parties to the issue agreed today to the set-up a multi-stakeholder ‘task force’ aimed at arriving at a compromise agreeable to all.

The task force will have representation from at least eight residents’ associations, the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ), the developer Malaysian Assurance Alliance Bhd (MAA), and Selangor government as well as elected parliamentary and state representatives.

After the residents have submitted a list of their representatives and the MAA and government representatives have been determined, Selangor exco member in charge of local councils Ronnie Liu said the task force’s chairperson would be chosen and work to reach the resolution would start immediately.

ronnie liu selangor interview 080408 "This task force will work towards finding a solution. We want to resolve this matter as soon as possible," said Liu when concluding a dialogue on the issue at the MPAJ building this morning.

Liu said this task force should reach a resolution of the matter before the Appeal Board of the Selangor Town and Country Planning Department sits to hear the residents’ appeal against MPAJ’s approval of MAA’s development plan.

As much as possible, he added, the Selangor government seeks to avoid situations where people and private interests go to court against state government bodies and vice-versa.

Despite its own position against hillside development - the Selangor government recently announced it is disallowing development in areas whose gradient are 25 degrees and above - the administration does not want to go as far as cancelling this project as it has been approved by the local council, said Liu.

Such a move would have an adverse impact on the "credibility" of the state administration, he added.

Last remaining green lungs

The dialogue, which saw about 100 residents from the Ampang-Ukay area taking part, heard a score of people inveighing against MPAJ and MAA for the latter’s proposed development plan.

The project, which would see the construction of 149 bungalows and 460 shop offices, is set to take place on land 48 percent of which slopes at a gradient of 25 degrees and above and one of Selangor’s last remaining ‘green-lungs’.

The residents also said the project raises the spectre of the Highland Towers, Taman Zoo View and Hill View tragedies due to the area’s susceptibility to soil erosion and landslides.

According to the residents, the project and the manner in which it had gone through the approval process has been riddled with problems and irregularities in relation to the Selangor Structure Plan as well as the Town and Country Planning Act 1976.

Other than MPAJ officials, also present at the dialogue today were representatives from the state Department of Environment and Ikram Sdn Bhd, which had reviewed the various geological, technical, and soil reports and assessments by MAA’s consultants.

State exco member Elizabeth Wong assured the residents that she would acquire and go through all the relevant technical reports from MAA as well as the correspondence between MPAJ and the various governmental departments pertaining to the Dataran Ukay project.

Liu noted, however, that it has to be determined whether and which of these documents are under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

Countering snide remarks that came from the audience regarding Liu’s citation of the OSA, Liu said the present state government matter should not be taken to task for an act which it did not put into place.

"For the past 50 years, you voted for the Barisan Nasional government which put into place the OSA," said the DAP leader.

The Selangor menteri besar, however, would declassify those documents should they be categorised as being under the OSA, Liu assured.

Company spent RM290 mil

In his briefing on the Ukay Heights project, MAA general manager (in charge of property projects and development) Tan Thean Enng noted that the company has spent RM290 million and underwent more than five years of layout revisions and applications.

MAA had also accommodated all the technical requirements and reports from 13 government agencies and submitted a total of 21 technical reports, said Tan.

"All this while, the residents have not wished to talk to us," he noted, adding that the only feedback they received from the residents was through the media and the three official hearings organised by MPAJ.

Tan said MAA was proposing several solutions for the residents to consider if safety was the main consideration:

- the residents can themselves go through the reports and lodge complaints on them to MAA;

- the residents can engage their own specialists to go through the reports and obtain their views or objections to be conveyed to MAA; or

- the residents can recommend their specialists to advise MAA on the proposed development.

If the residents are concerned mainly with maintaining the greenery of the proposed site, however, the residents would have to seek other solutions to the problem, said Tan.

"We don’t mind selling the land to MPAJ," said Tan.