'DBKL citing draft laws to undervalue land acquisition'

Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/193024 (By Leven Woon, 24/3/2012)
KL City Hall (DBKL) has been accused of enforcing provisions in the KL City Plan 2020 to acquire land below market value, despite the plan still being at a draft stage.
At a press conference today, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng claimed that the council's City Planning Department had cited the draft plan, conceived in 2008, as legal policy for its implementation for land acquisition. He cited a complaint he has received, from an owner who said DBKL has issued him an acquisition notice to vacate his piece of commercial land in Jalann Pudu.
"However, the planning department has scaled down the plot ratio of the land from the original 5.2 to 2, citing a provision under the KL City Draft Plan. "They only give compensation based on the plot ratio of 2.0, causing the owner to lose hundreds of thousands in ringgit.
"I don't know whether the official is too clever or too naïve. Shouldn't they know that a draft plan cannot be implemented until it is fully gazetted?" said Lim.
He said an invitation letter he received last week also confirmed that DBKL has yet to garzetta the plan, as a final public consultation seminar will be held next Tuesday.
"So far I have received five similar complaints on DBKL implementing the draft plan," he said.
'DBKL undervalued Jalan Sultan lots'
DBKL’s development plans need to be gazetted as a draft, and undergo public consultation before it can finally be gazetted and come to effect as law.
Meanwhile, Lim believed that DBKL had given the same treatment to Jalan Sultan shopowners, which is part of the reason why some shopowners had refused to sell their shops to make way for the construction of the MRT. He said some owners, who had bought the shops for investment, note that DBKL has tremendously undervalued their properties.
"I hereby call on those who have suffered the same fate to come forward and pursue legal action against DBKL. "This can be done even if they have sold their properties, because whatever done illegally cannot be deemed as legal (and can be challenged)," he said.