KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is reviewing its redevelopment guidelines to ensure developers surrender functional green spaces, rather than fragmented plots that the public cannot utilise.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh said green spaces surrendered under redevelopment projects should not be limited to small or unusable plots.
She said they should instead include proper fields, jogging tracks and recreational areas that benefit surrounding communities.
"When we talk about green space, we want it to be useful. If you give small plots that people cannot use, there is no point," she said at a press conference after the handover of an AED unit at Balai Bomba Sri Hartamas on Thursday (June 11).
Yeoh said this was part of wider efforts to improve Kuala Lumpur's liveability while strengthening the city's flood resilience.
She said DBKL was also building underground on-site detention ponds beneath existing fields and green spaces to tackle flash floods amid the city's limited land availability.
"We do not have a lot of land left. We want to create more capacity and space to hold water and also turn Kuala Lumpur into a sponge city," she said.
Yeoh said nine on-site detention ponds had been identified, with two currently under construction and work on three more to begin soon.
She said the Federal Territories Department had also set up two task forces, one focusing on the gazetting of green spaces and another on flood mitigation and retention ponds.
She also said gazetting was important to ensure green areas and flood infrastructure sites were protected from being sold or converted in the future.
Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Seri Fadlun Mak Ujud said DBKL had sped up the gazetting process through cooperation with the Lands and Mines Department.
Previously, DBKL had to wait for a final survey plan before an area could be gazetted.
However, DBKL can now submit pre-computation plans to fast-track the process.
"Our target now is open spaces larger than 0.4ha which we classify as urban parks and these will be given priority," he said.
Fadlun said once gazetted, DBKL would allocate funds to turn the areas into simple recreational spaces, starting with lawns and tree planting.
He added that DBKL would also reclaim some open parking areas for green and recreational use, including a 0.4ha site at Lorong TAR.
The move follows earlier concerns over the status of Kuala Lumpur's flood retention ponds.
It was reported in StarMetro on May 26 that the city's flood retention ponds had not been gazetted for 18 years, following findings by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
At a May 12 press conference, Yeoh had said the capacity of the Jinjang and Batu flood retention ponds had shrunk by 70% after 17 land lots within the pond zones were transferred to developers from 2015.
The transfer reduced the ponds' capacity to 34.35ha from the original 114.5ha.
Describing the reduction as a "foolish decision," Yeoh ordered an immediate freeze on all development approvals involving the remaining lots until stringent technical requirements by the Drainage and Irrigation Department were fully met.
