Sime-UEP in last-minute rush to fulfil low-cost housing quota. USJ residents point at Selangor government for mistakes that caused their woes.

By usjXpress Team
 

SUBANG JAYA, Monday week of November 1, 1999

All fingers now point to the Selangor state government why it had allowed Sime-UEP to be exempted from building low-cost housing since UEP Subang Jaya (USJ) was started some 10 years ago.

In a total development area of 25,000 acre in USJ, the developer has yet to fulfil its low-cost housing quota though it was about to deplete its land bank in the designated area.

All housing developers are required to allocate 20 percent of the development for low-cost housing under RM42,000 per unit, and 10% for medium low-cost housing not exceeding RM72,000 per unit.

The USJ 16 high-density project is seen as a last-minute effort by the developer to fulfil its quota obligation to ensure approval for its future projects in Putera Heights will not be held up by the authorities.

Consultant reports obtained by the residents also confirmed that Sime-UEP had not fulfilled its low cost housing quota.

For the USJ project covering 25,000 acre, Sime-UEP is required to allocate 20 per cent or 5,000 acre of its land for low-cost housing below RM42,000 per unit.

By developing 4.5ha, or about 11 acre, in USJ 16, it is still very much off-target in conforming to the requirements.

Residents in USJ 16 are now collating information to ask the Menteri Besar's intervention why they have been singled out to pay for the mistakes made by the developer.

Dato' Lee Hwa Beng disclosed that since becoming an assemblyman, he has been pressing Sime-UEP to build low-cost housing projects in USJ.

"By right, the low-cost houses must be even dispersed throughout USJ to avoid traffic jams in one particular area," he said.

Sime-UEP's plan to build 4 blocks of 10-storey flats over a 4.5ha plot of land will translate into a plot ratio that is excessively higher than the existing residential holdings adjacent to the worksite.

The proposed project will build about 100 houses in one acre, while there are only 12 units per acre built in the residential area 50 feet across the road from the worksite.

The work site was originally planned for an apartment project housing 180 units in the same 4.5ha piece of land to be integrated to a comprehensive low-density residential area.

It is learnt that the state government under the new Menteri Besar Datuk Abu Hassan Omar has been pressing hard on the developers on low-cost housing.