PETALING Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung is urging the Selangor government to provide further clarification on the planning guidelines for non-Muslim places of worship (RISI), specifically on temporary development orders, and to reconsider the threshold for RISI land allocation.
Acknowledging that Selangor exco member Ng Sze Han has responded to public concerns regarding the 2025 Selangor State Planning Guidelines and Standards for Community Facilities relating to RISI, Lee said the explanation still fell short of addressing on-ground concerns.
“First, the position of RISI premises in industrial areas remains unanswered,” said Lee in a statement on Monday (June 8).
“There is a paragraph in the planning guidelines stating that ‘conversion of existing buildings into RISI use is not allowed’. Legally, this may prohibit RISI from operating in all areas, including industrial areas.”
He explained that many RISIs in commercial and industrial areas operate under temporary development orders (KMTT). Because these approvals require renewal upon expiry, they are typically limited to a maximum of 12 years.
Lee questioned how the state government could guarantee that such renewals or reapplications would not be treated as new applications and subsequently rejected.
“A comparison of the previous editions of the same guidelines — from the second, third, fourth and now fifth editions — shows that an important sentence was removed from the fourth edition onwards, published in 2020,” he said.
It states: “The development of religious places in shop premises and residential premises is not permitted, unless it is proven that there is no suitable land or area available for such purpose.
It may only be considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to there being no disturbance or nuisance to residents in the surrounding area, and to the decision of the local authority.”
“The removal of this case-by-case discretion from local authorities has created the very uncertainty and risk now faced by many RISI,” said Lee.
“Equally troubling is the requirement that a new RISI site may only be allocated when there is a residential catchment of more than 5,000 residents or 1,250 residential units.
“In practice, 1,250 residential units would require a development area of more than 100 acres (40ha) under a single development order, which is increasingly rare in today’s Klang Valley context.”
He also expressed concern about another clause in the latest guideline regarding the prescribed height limit for existing RISI buildings, which states that the local authority has the right to issue notices or take enforcement action in accordance with the relevant legal provisions should a RISI structure be built beyond the limit.
Lee urged the Selangor government to come clean on this provision and explain clearly how it will affect existing RISI that have exceeded the prescribed height limit of 21.94m.
He said the current guidelines require a comprehensive withdrawal, review, and retabling at the State Executive Council meeting.
Lee also suggested that the Selangor government and its Special Committee on Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, and Taoist Affairs (Limas) consider several proposals.
“Limas should clarify the status of existing KMTT approvals so that renewals or reapplications are not treated as new applications,” he said.
“They should also restore case-by-case deliberation powers to local authorities to maintain flexibility, as well as reduce the threshold for RISI land allocation from 1,250 residential units for a 0.61ha site to 500 residential units for a 0.2ha site.”
Instead of leaving the matter solely to the local authorities, Lee said the state government should allow Limas to deliberate and decide on cases involving existing RISIs that have exceeded the prescribed height limit.
He said the amendments are necessary to ease public anxiety, preserve administrative flexibility and uphold Malaysia’s long-standing spirit of mutual respect, coexistence and national unity.
