Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has rejected an application to develop a sports complex at the former SK Danau Perdana site in Taman Danau Desa
The leaseholder, a used car dealer, had submitted a planning permission application to DBKL for a sports complex comprising seven pickleball courts and a gymnasium.
DBKL executive director (planning) Rosli Nordin confirmed that the application had been denied.
“We rejected the application because the land is meant for a school.
“The company is involved in the used car business, yet it applied to develop sports facilities on the site.
“DBKL has to be very careful when assessing applications like this,’’ he said.
StarMetro reported on Monday that the former school site, abandoned for 21 years after it was deemed structurally unsafe, had been leased to a used car dealer for three years.
The move disappointed folk in the Taman Desa and Taman Danau Desa neighbourhoods.
Residents had hoped the land would one day function as a school as intended.
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok questioned the lease and why the Education Ministry had rejected a proposal to relocate SMJK Confucian to the site, only to lease the land for commercial use later.
She hailed DBKL’s latest decision, but said it did not address the bigger issue.
“The Education Ministry and Federal Territories Lands and Mines Office still owe the public an explanation.
“If this land is meant for a school, it should remain a school site. The lease itself needs to be explained,” she said.
Taman Desa Residents Association (TDRA) chairman Wong Chan Choy welcomed DBKL’s decision.
“We are relieved that DBKL has rejected the application because we have always maintained that this land should be used solely for educational purposes.
“The neighbourhood has grown tremendously over the years and our schools are at capacity.”
Wong said the site should be preserved for future educational needs, not commercial projects.
“As stakeholders who live here, residents should be consulted before any new development or project is proposed.
“The community deserves to have a say in how government land in our neighbourhood is used,” added Wong.
Resident Jason Tan, though happy with the decision, said the authorities must not leave the site in its current state.
Although DBKL’s decision was good, he said work should not stop now.
He called for the landowner or DBKL to demolish the abandoned buildings and clean it up.
“As long as the buildings remain, vagrants, suspected drug users and illegal dumping continues,” he said, adding that they had been living with the problem for years.
The former SK Danau Perdana was built in 2003 at a cost of RM14.5mil.
It was closed two years later after structural defects caused the building to crack and sink.
The site remained abandoned for two decades before being leased to a used car dealer for three years.
