The majority of development submissions to the Selayang Municipal Council’s (MPS) one-stop-centre only received conditional approval.

MPS council president Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain said out of 707 applications submitted last year, 23.2% were fully approved, 12.02% rejected or postponed while 64.78% received conditional approval.

He said this after opening a one-day seminar organised by MPS on the application procedures for the one-stop centre at the Shah Alam Convention Centre recently.

It was attended by about 300 people and saw papers from MPS, Gombak Land and District Office, Fire and Rescue Department and Housing, Urban Wellbeing and Local Government Ministry.

“While some of the conditionally approved submissions were due to serious issues such as lack of geotechnical studies or in some cases, even traffic impact assessments, others were due to minor deficiencies like not having the requisite signatures or supporting documents.

“This should not be happening as the principal submitting persons (PSPs) should be aware of the guidelines,” said Mohd Azizi.

Some of the issues discussed at the seminar were procedural, such as appending proper documents in planning approval applications while the ministry’s Local Government Department director Aminah Abd Rahman spoke about the upcoming “OSC 3.0” model. She said the “OSC 3.0” model will include processes ranging from data gathering until the issuance of Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC).

“The new model also goes beyond the main construction stage, to pre- and post-construction, compared to the current focus on the approval process alone,” she said. Town planning consultant Anis Ahizan said the seminar had helped expand her knowledge.

“I will be disseminating what I learned to my colleagues,” she said, adding the seminar had helped her understand the approval process better.

Engineer Kelvin Sooh said the seminar was a good start.

“However, it is a little too general as there are a lot of issues in obtaining planning approvals for developments.

“Perhaps MPS could organise more focused workshops with specific case studies,” he said.