KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur High Court has granted leave for Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) community representatives to pursue a judicial review against the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and Mayor Datuk Seri Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz over a proposed housing development in Taman Rimba Kiara.
Save Taman Rimba Kiara Working Group member, Loan Koay, said the judicial review papers have been served on the City Hall and Mohd Amin as the respondents on Monday.
He said that the High Court has fixed September 6 for case management where both the respondents are expected to be present.
"All of us in the TTDI community and users of Taman Rimba Kiara and Bukit Kiara look foward to having this matter settled speedily.
"We did not wish to have an adversarial situation with the authorities in our effort to preserve Taman Rimba Kiara.
"However, the actions of the authorities in relation to this matter have left the community and park lovers with no choice but to seek redress in the court of law," he told reporters at the TTDI Community Centre's hall, here today.
Koay added that the judicial review application request include an order from the court quashing a conditional planning permission and development order granted by the City Hall to the developer, an order from the court requiring the Mayor to adopt and gazette the Kuala Lumpur Draft City Plan 2020, and an order from the court staying and planning permission and development order and all related processes and actions, pending disposal of substantive matters raised in the application.
Meanwhile, the parties involved in the judicial review application include the management bodies of the five apartment complexes most proximate to Taman Rimba Kiara, the TTDI Residents' Association and several residents of TTDI.
In the previous report, Mohd Amin had said that despite the residents’ threat to take legal action, the mega project will be approved after all terms of development are adhered to.
He pointed out that it was the right of the landowner to develop the area as long as it stayed within his or her land and all the rules are followed.
He had also assured that the development will not affect Taman Rimba Kiara.
City Hall had issued a notice on June last year on the proposed development on a portion of land that is situated within the 189ha Taman Rimba Kiara.
The proposed development involves the building of eight blocks of 42- and 52-storey high-end serviced apartments and a 29-storey affordable housing block, which will provide 350 units of affordable housing for former TTDI longhouse residents.
It was reported that the longhouse residents had been promised affordable housing units to replace their cramped quarters since in 1982. They had however refused to move and had rejected offers of PPR flats and public housing.
A six-lane highway and a flyover are also in the plan to cater to the increase in population density in the area.