The MPPP has been pre-empted in its plans to assess a site at Pykett Avenue for a proposed luxury condominium project.
All that’s left of 20 Pykett Avenue.
The structure, which sits on the site of the original Westlands house, was demolished over the weekend before planning approval for the condominium project had been obtained and while neighbours’ views were being sought, according to a source. This could amount to a planning violation under the Town and Country Planning Act.
The Planning Division of the MPPP had only on Friday invited a group of experts to assess and inspect the 3.4 acre-site after neighbouring residents expressed concern and objections over the RM280 million high-rise project.
See what the developer has in mind for the site here.
The developer had bought the site from a private company in December 2009 for RM38.7 million (RM262 per sq ft), according to a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
From a broader perspective, the project appears to be yet another high-end development aimed at the wealthy and at foreigners (notice the introduction to Penang on the project website, presumably for those who haven’t heard of the place).
Meanwhile, the low-income group is gradually being priced out of the island. Will we eventually see the rich largely on the island separated by the channel from the not-so-rich living on the mainland? What about low-income workers employed on the island? Where will they live?
The photo below is of the building before it was demolished.
MPPP should insist that the developer rebuilds and restores the heritage building before any approval can be given for the construction of a luxurious condominium there.
Mr Lim Kit Siang’s stand on Hotel Metropole refers:-
http://bibliotheca.limkitsiang.com/1994/01/18/the-new-mppp-council-at-its-first-meeting-should-reinstate-hotel-metropole-to-the-1989-mppp-list-of-20-heritage-buildings-at-jalan-sultan-ahmad-shah-by-setting-aside-the-mppp-decision-last-oct-28/
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Now, the question is what is the MPPP and the Penang State Government going to do about this. Penalize them according to law – bout that really would be pittance to those who did violate this law.
Well, besides charging and fining the relevant parties. The State Government and the MPPP can blacklist not just the companies involved, but also all other companies/businesses the said Directors, CEOs, upper management and also major shareholders are involved directly and/or indirectly. Blacklisting companies alone is not sufficient as it is so easy for them to just start up another company.
With regard the project that they intend to do on the site, the power is in the hands of the MPPP and also the State Government, so permission can be refused. In fact, maybe the State may also consider using the Land Acquisition Act and taking back the land.
Such actions, severe though they may be, must be done also as a deterence to others. Remember that in this case it is the people ….the rakyat that have been deprived their rights – their rights to comment, to object. The process of soliciting views of the ‘neighbours’, others was still going on…
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The house is not in the heritage enclave, it is only in the buffer zone. Let destroy and rebuild. Heritage conservation ala LGE style!
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Not really.
There is one old Colonial style house situated in Dato Kramat Road.
In front of the former Federal cinema.
Not inside the heritage enclave either.
That house is in ruin,… because the authority does not permit the owner to tear down the house and replace it with some commercial building.
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Pearl,
Are you sure that the authorities does not permit the owner to tear down this house. Don`t just jump to conclusion with your half truth. This house has no heritage value at all.
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Why you machais never do your homework?
Why don’t you go ask the owner?
I did.
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Ong Eu Soon,
Lim Kean Siew building, Wawasan University & Shih Chung school in Northam Road are also not in the heritage enclave. You should have also ask these to be destroyed. Is this heritage conservation ala your style. Lets be fair and not be biased just because you do not like LGE. Also have you forgotten that these heritage conservation law set was up by the Gerakan governemnt under (political) eunuch KTK
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With these kind of perverted destruction of heritage beauties, it is quite doubtful Penang’s Heritage will stand the test of time and the continuous violation of sections of the Town and Country Planning Act by errant developers greedy…. Already, our Architectural Heritage is fragile at the rate things are going on.
The state Gomen, MPPP and who-else should come up with more stringent and deterrent measures to overcome this perennial misdeeds of developers and land owners.
Once a heritage building is destroyed, it is too late to save it.
The key is prevention of destructive hands at work of greedy developers.
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This is Malaysia, lah. Buddy buddy with people in power and the developers can do what they want. Wanna bet, nothing will happen. The few people making noise in the blogs are nothing but nuisance and obstacles to progress.
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What’s progress, Buddy? Becoming extinct?
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Given the severe comments Lim Senior had written about the Metropole Hotel (similarly destroyed before the approval to build was given), I don’t think MPPP can be allowed to go easy on the developer.
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So what the machais going to blame now? The FED?
MPPP under Lim Guan Eng has been shown to be totally incompetent, as incompetent as Lim Guan Eng.
Not only the FED sees MPPP as nothing even developers don’t heed MPPP anymore.
And Wira’s suggestion to “rebuild” the thing – what a sick joke can that be?
Demolish the original and rebuild a fake one, does that counted as “okay”?
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Pearl, If its a joke why didn`t you talk that to the weakling KTK and (the previous administration which) fined metropole 10,000 and let them rebuilt with only the facade intact. Are you simply full of idiocy or hypocrisy.!!
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Penalise the owner in accordance with the heritage conservation law that was set up by the zero kpi Gerakan government.
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MPPP and LGE would not do anything. they are working hand in hand with …
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How come MACC do not come and investigate so that the PR Government collapse and Gerakan K, ES and Pearl take over to become Pearl of Orient?
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The developer should be fined the value of the proposed project of RM 280 million plus the amount of RM 38.7 million which they paid for the purchase of the land. The application for planning permission should be ripped up and thrown out. Not only the developer should be stripped of their license but the names of directors, stake holders etc blacklisted to prevent any of them setting up a new company. Hit them where it’s hard and that is in their greedy, selfish pockets.
I have seen the proposed project and it is ugly, aesthetically not pleasant and not a structure that would be in character with the surrounding location(whether inside the heritage or buffer zones or not). Basically it is an eyesore and should not ever be considered for planning permission.
With this type of cowboy behaviour Penang’s UNESCO award could very much be put in jeopardy. Think about that loss.
State Government should stop being so namby-pamby and come down hard. That way they will earn the respect of the voting Rakyat that pays their salaries.
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You really think Lim Guan Eng has the guts to do that?
Nah!
… everything will surely be okay, just like the case of our Botanical Garden.
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I’ve a feeling if a developer tore down a protected building in the UK they could precisely be held liable for the cost of rebuilding it – but it appears the law goes softly first:
http://www.putneysw15.com/default.asp?section=info&page=planningbrandle05.htm
Conservation is pretty much an all-or-nothing problem. If there’s the slightest hint that a lenient view will be taken by the authorities, old buildings are as good as gone. I disagree with the soft approach in the UK article. I think the land should have been forfeit to the care of the local council for reconstruction by a specialist contractor, to be given back to the original owner on payment of costs, or auctioned to recoup costs.
Laws that aren’t enforced are not laws at all.
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But there is no law on the book to enforce what you have suggested, Sean.
The DAP-led government, 2 years after 308 still hasn’t produce _any_ meaningful law to protect the environment / heritage value of the city / help the people.
They are the legislature and they ought to have some people (lawyers) who can write laws.
For 2 long years they have done none of that.
None.
All they have done is to let that loose canon Lim Guan Eng let loose his lousy canon. Bombard here, bombard there while Penang continue heading Southward.
Is this what “Change” is all about?
Is this what the Pakatan is all about?
All talk and no action?
All noise and no work done?
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iGNORANT FOOL, pEARL, tHE LAW HAS BEEN ENACTED BY THE PREVIOUS STATE GOVERNMENT BUT IT IS SO VAGUE
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There – Machais calling me “Ignorant Fool”.
Dear Machai,
Could you kindly show me the law that can satisfy Sean’s suggestion:
“If a developer tore down a protected building in the UK they could precisely be held liable for the cost of rebuilding it”
Please show me, nay, show all of us _THAT_ law.
Please !
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The law clearly state that if a protected building has been torn down without approval, then that land cannot be approved for development. But your weakling KTK and the white hair under their guise use every … means to have the Metropole approved.
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Dear MPPP YDP Pn. Patahiyah and CM Lim Guan Eng
I am waiting with bated breath to see what you are going to say – and do – about this blatant disregard for town planning regulations under the Town and Country Planning Act.
Go ahead. Make my day!
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Please do not withold your breath.
Your face may turn from green to blue to black and still there will be no action from Mr. Lim Guan Eng.
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would you buy from a developer who has shown such disrespect for the law even before the project has begun.
would they also disrespect the engineer’s advice, turn a blind eye to the requirements of the building guidelines and fire department, skimp on materials etc etc.
mmm I think I would put my money elsewhere.
this is nothing to do with an old building being demolished. its about trusting when the law has been ignored – what else will happen?
who will get all the complaints afterwards – MPPP? CM? so better think about letting such behaviour continue – the headache might be bigger later.
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It boils down to this: No one respects MPPP / Penang State Government anymore.
You can thak Lim Guan Eng for that.
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Its only the Federal Administration under UMNO and Najib that tried to break (the) rules and law that is in the book.The people of the country and Penang will always respect MPPP and the current government unlike Pearl who still condone such illegal activities of UMNO and (its leaders). One such act is the Perak takeover.
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If the developer is forced to rebuild and restore the destroyed building to its original form, that penalty would certainly be a bad joke on him.
That will teach errant builders to respect the rights of society.
Lim Kit Siang had severely condemned KTK’s government stand and action on Metropole hotel before. Now it’s time for his party to do it the way Uncle Lim wanted done.
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Oh man.
“Restore to its original form”?
The original building has been torn down and how on earth can anyone “restore the original building to its original form” ?
Stop abusing the Queen’s language, Wira.
Restoration does not include tearing down a complete building.
Restoration means something else – with the original building intact.
When you tear down a building and rebuild it, it isn’t restoration anymore since the original building is gone. What you got as the final result is a fake copy of the orignal building, a cetak rompak, if you will.
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Well, do we value our history or don’t we? We have lost so much already and people seem to keep arguing about being within the heritage enclave or not. It really doesn’t matter. History is history and, in the case of historical buildings, artifacts etc, won’t be repeated or restored by mere talk. College General in Pulau Tikus, is a classic example, we’ve also lost 2nd World War bunkers in Mt. Erskine and Tanjung Tokong and who knows numerous other valuable pieces of history. So what will be left for our children and grand-children? Yellowing photographs? It doesn’t compare with the real thing. In the UK, the National Trust takes care of historical sites, buildings and places. They have been so well maintained and restored that on visiting these places one can see how people used to live and the events of the time. They even replicate centuries old newspapers. I have seen this for myself, so am not talking theory. This is what we failed to learn from the British – how to preserve our heritage. A great pity!!
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“Well, do we value our history or don’t we?”
Actually, we do.
But Lim Guan Eng is not part of the “we”, and there lies the problem.
Lim Guan Eng being an outsider does not share our heartache when heritage building such as this one being torn down.
Lim Guan Eng does not appreciate the history of Penang.
All Lim Guan Eng is interested in is to make himself a superstar – blasting this guy / blasting that guy / let loose his lousy canon all day long.
Exactly what Lim Guan Eng has done for the environment of Penang since 308?
What about the promise to plant 2 million trees?
How about the restoration of the Heritage Buildings in Penang?
Has Lim Guan Eng done any of that?
Since 308 Lim Guan Eng’s report card has been a piece of blank paper.
They promised change, but as far as I see, the DAP-led government is continuing the same old tired policies from Koh Tsu Koon administration.
The needs of the people are not being addressed.
The needs to improve the State of Penang is no where to be seen.
All what we got is Lim Guan Eng appearing almost daily on the Newspaper Headlines talking nonsense.
Do you know that Lim Guan Eng is the most noisy politician of the Malaysian history? No, not only the Penang history, but the entire history of Malaysia.
Ever since 1957 we haven’t have any politician making so much noise and in the meantime never deliver anything, except for Mr. Lim Guan Eng.
Are we Penangites supposed to feel “Banga” for we have such a “Malaysian Record Holder” Chief Minister?
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sad…..there goes a piece of our memories. nit’s just stones and rubble now
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When some Malaysian histories can be erased or amended, this heritage destruction is no big surprise at all.
When others are trying hard to conserve and preserve their culture, nature and heritage values, we are discarding them like old furniture.
It appears like anything that cannot deliver instant profits or generate corrupt monies are literally taken off the Malaysian soil.
Alas, the future of our younger generation will be in ‘extreme heritage poverty’.
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Anil,
All the bickering that I observe between the UMNO gang & PAKATAN gang in your blog sure is very defining on the mental state of our fellow Malaysians. You spoke on where will the low income people stay if everything is priced out for them, yet what we in majority is a spade of accusation from both the gangs on how and what should be done and foremost everything political? One may gain political and individual material independence, but if one is a slave to his/her own passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom for its people as it seems everything can be sacrified for the truth for the community for their own personal reasons.
Keep it up Anil as good work and sincerety will eventually prevail.
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No doubt a heritage house like the above is worth preserving if it is not seated on a large 3.4 acre site that can be developed into a marvellous cool project like Icon Residence. I personally like the architectural design very much.
The fact is we have too many heritage buildings similar to this all around the island. Some have to be preserved but some can be demolished to give way for development.
At the end of the day, we Penangites still need to eat isn’t it? What’s wrong with bringing in more well-heeled foreigners to stimulate our dying economy?
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A crying shame!!! Many, many years ago, I had the golden opportunity to visit the house, when it was still occupied, and I’d say it is definitely a heritage building.
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Pearl you need to visit Suffolk House to see how a building can be rebuilt in its traditional method and form when it was a near ruin – they you will understand better that it is possible to rebuilt 20 Pykett Avenue. plenty of examples all over the world – just needs people with skill and knowledge, and there are plenty here in Penang no worries.
What shouldn’t happen is the strange example of the illegally demolished Metropole hotel ( 25. 12. 93) being re built 3 meters in the air, adoy what nonsense is that – but that was the misguided interpretation of rebuild, when that developer broke the law then.
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That was a “near ruin” building.
Near ruin building means the building is about to collapse.
Restoration for a near ruin building mean you need to take away something to make the building more firm before you add something else on to it.
But this one is different.
This building is not even near the “near ruin” category.
This building was purposely torn down.
Which means, this building is _NO MORE_.
Any “restoration” on this building is meaningless, for any building that resulted from this “restoration” would be not the same building.
It is like tearing down the Egyptian Pyramid to “restore” it and then call it the “Egyptian Pyramid”.
Yes, that new building may have a shape of the orignal pyramid. It will even feel the same, but it isn’t.
The original pyramid was like thousands of years old, and this new one? It’s a fake !
Same thing applies here.
The original building has history to it. Decades and perhaps more than a century of history to it and now it is gone.
Building a new building on the same site, even if it looks exactly the same, isn’t going to be the same building.
No. It will be a duplicate, a fake, a cetak rompak.
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I don’t think it matters if the site of a heritage building is turned to glass by a nuclear blast. The building must be re-built, as faithfully as possibly, using specialist contractors who understand the original techniques and tooling if needed. The alternative is that “restore unless the site is completely swept clean” is a loophole in the law, the effect of which would be to guarantee that every errant developer will be sure to have a broom with them before they start to erase heritage.
For that reason, any really useful heritage register must be much more than a list of addresses, it must also contain detailed photographs and descriptions of every fine detail that qualifies a subject for inclusion in the first place. If a developer can tear down a building and is allowed to ‘restore it’ as a poured concrete crude replica, it will be only a matter of the brief passage of time before the facsimile is dropped from the register because it is apparently not worth preserving.
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Colour blind, the law was broken mate – don’t forget that first, it does not matter if this was the Eiffel Tower, the law was broken wasn’t it?
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Question is, why they broke the law _NOW_ ?
The sale was completed way before 308, but they did not demolish the house before 308, did they?
Why do it now?
Is it a “show of force”? A “middle finger” gesture to the current state government?
Especially before MPPP could send people there.
Is it a signal to the world that “Hey, you all come to Penang to do everything you like since the present Penang State Government is practically useless” ?
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Wrong, the S & P agreement was entered into in December 2009.
Please read properly.
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It is not the time to talk politic. It is the time to cry for the Khaw Sim Bee mansion, to cry for Heritage City…Our heritage law is too fragile…
If you love Penang heritage, let us now list down all our heritage buildings not listed or not located in Heritage Zone
Let the Penang people stand up, regardless of political inclination, to take steps to set up a communication system to alert the authority or newspaper or the NGOs on any attempt to demolish our heritage buildings. There are still many around, where no body care….Let us be the eyes for our heritage.
Politician cannot be depended on solely, look at Metropole Hotel(Asdang House), that is under BN, now Khaw’s mansion under Pakatan….do you think we still can trust politician?….
Let us come together to petition the MPPP to reject the planning approval of any errant developer who break the law; to rebuilt the building, to boycott the errant developer and stop buying any residential units from them.
To start people action to protect our heritage. To create awareness..
By the way, where is PHT?…we need a channel….
Let the Penang people stand up…..
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PHT quiet lah…..later no Datukship for all of them….
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Dear Pearl,
I did not write “restore the original building to its original form” ?
I wrote “restore the destroyed building to its original form.”
Let me teach you how to quote correctly before you attempt to teach me Queen’s English.
Now tell me who tore down that building?
MPPP?
Lim Guan Eng?
Why are you so sore with YAB Lim in this when he is not the one who destroyed that building?
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Here is what you wrote:
“If the developer is forced to rebuild and restore the destroyed building to its original form, that penalty would certainly be a bad joke on him.”
In it there is one sentence: “Restore the destroyed building to its orignal form.”
You want to lie again, machai?
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Stop abusing the Queen’s language!
Who is the lying abuser?
Pearly, your antics are such a joke…
Please read your fine prints you wrote (28 July 2010 at 11.16am)!
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If you guys so love heritage building, buy up and keep it as long as you can….this heritage building is owned by other people…the owner can do whatever he like under the law. Why blame LGE? Sound so stupid.
Did you make any noise when the Pudu prison’s wall was torn down? Don’t try to very clever jumping into conclusion.
Anil, has this building been gazetted as a heritage building? If not, why are you all jumping…? If yes, let wait to see what action the revelent authority is taking?
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It’s not a question of heritage or not.
It is a question of allowing the MPPP to follow its process of seeking neighbours’ views, assessing the site etc before giving planning approval.
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