The Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) is set to take action against the preemptive demolition of a building at 20 Pykett Avenue, the site of a large property development project. But will such action be enough of a deterrence in the future?
The building, though not gazetted as a heritage structure, was demolished without prior planning permission, prompting the Council to take legal action under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976. The MPPP is in the process of seeking a judgement and penalties including applying for a mandatory order to take appropriate future action.
Several questions arise: would the developer’s plan for the land still proceed? Would such legal action be sufficient to deter other developers from resorting to similar preemptive demolition strikes? Or would developers factor in the costs of the legal penalties and resulting delays in their own planning?
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Do you all know that the developer has submitted a high density development plan to build 1) 4 towers, which range from 22 to 27 storeys with 315 units apartments 2) 5 levels podium for Car park. The design & planning fail to take into consideration the carrying capacity of the traffic flow into the current highly congested Jalan Burmah and neither the ultra-modern high rise design seek to blend with the surrounding old shophouses. It wil be a major townscape disaster to George Town if the plan is apporoved as it is & I have no confidence that the… Read more »
When was this? From what I heard recently from a well-placed source, the developer has not yet submitted plans yet cos the issue of demolition without approval is pending legal action by MPPP.
Still, we need to be vigilant.
Maximum fine 500K for offence, likely to be fined 10K or less for first offence, always will be first offence as developers always use a new sdn bhd company for each project. I believe the old Metropole Hotel, a heritage hotel, owner was only fined 10K, this was under the old legislation. Do the maths GDV as listed in the developers Bursa announcement , GDV is 380,000,000.00. Max fine of 500K is only 0.1316% of GDV. Whats that ?? So help me GOD !! Mr Lim Guan Eng , please take note, the developers are taking advantage (because they have… Read more »
I agree with Peter totally or else none of our Heritage buildings will be safe. I know this is not Heritage, but developer will just pass on costs to the purchaser no problem.
Do not give them development permit for the next 20 years, teach them and show them we in Penang with Guan Eng we are not BN, we are not corruptible !! We are better then Singapore !!
The city council should not approve any plan to be built on the piece of land of the illegal demolition takes place. Make sure that no building is erected there for at least 20 years. Only then the developer will be taught a lesson. Fining them is nothing!!!
Gerakan K, what is the latest…any plan to put your finger into the pie?
They have already factored it in and if it was BN, it would have been easier as they would have paid anyway sans publicity.
What the gormen need to do is play dirty, dont give them the approval to start building…..let them wait for decades altogether….the bureaucrats are very good at this. Let this be a lesson to this type of people that you cant factor in cost and bypass the law.
Anilnetto : “Or would developers factor in the costs of the legal penalties and resulting delays in their own planning?”
The answer is a BIG NO. That’s Malaysia culture, developer rarely account variables into their plan. They will turn into infamous “Guanxi” to sort things up. Alas, few realise, “guanxi” will ruins the day, weaken the company abilities to compete.