KUALA Lumpur has taken an important step towards transparency. For the first time, the full list of gazetted green and open spaces in the city has been made public. Residents can now see which lands are legally reserved for public green use. In a rapidly growing city, that clarity matters.
However, a review of the newly released data alongside current site conditions suggests that some plots gazetted as green space serve very different purposes – including as commercial premises and parking areas.
This does not necessarily imply wrongdoing. Land use evolves, temporary arrangements may be permitted, and administrative decisions accumulate over time. Yet it raises a basic question: If land legally designated as green space no longer functions as such, what does gazettement actually guarantee?
Part of the answer lies at the intersection of planning and land administration.
Under the National Land Code 1965, land reserved for public purposes may still be leased through a Reserved Land Lease (Pajakan Tanah Rizab). Owner-ship remains with the state authority, and the legal reservation may remain unchanged. On paper, the land is still reserved.
In practice, however, visible use shapes public perception. Once permanent structures appear, residents relate to the land according to what they see rather than its legal status. Over time, perception shifts. A green space in law may no longer feel like one in daily life.
Temporary arrangements can gradually become normalised. Future decisions – whether on lease renewals, rezoning or even degazettement – may increasingly be shaped by what already exists on the ground.
Lot 65419 on Jalan Kuching illustrates this dynamic. Gazetted as green space, it was leased in 2023 for 21 years. Today, a car showroom and café occupy the site. Legally, on paper, the reservation remains. Functionally, it no longer operates as public green space.
A decade from now, newer residents may not even know the land was originally intended for public use. When renewal or rezoning questions arise, the existing built form may appear to be the natural condition.
Each step may be lawful. Yet cumulatively, they create a pathway towards permanent change.
This matters because gazetted green spaces underpin Kuala Lumpur’s long-term planning commitments. Under the gazetted Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2040, the city aims to provide 20sq m of green space per resident by 2040.
Meeting that target requires not only creating new parks but preserving existing ones. If land continues to be counted as green space on paper while its actual use changes, the city may appear to move towards its target even as residents experience the opposite.
Once built upon, such spaces are rarely recoverable.
Publishing the gazetted list was an important first step. The harder task now is ensuring that what is reserved remains genuinely green, accessible, and protected over time.
Otherwise, Kuala Lumpur risks missing not just a planning target but also the promise of a more liveable city.
SHING SI YAN
Kuala Lumpur
