THE Penang Municipal Council's RM16mil deve-lopment project to upgrade the Esplanade and Light Street area should not result in one of the state's most prominent landmarks losing its character.
With work on the 101-year-old courthouse, the new seven-storey carpark and lower court building in Light Street nearing completion, the restoration of Chung Siew Ying mansion completed with a shiny, new adjacent building and the Esplanade undergoing a facelift, this popular tourist attraction and historical area could lose its quaint charm to urbanisation.