Selangor to discuss building plan approval for Atria’s public facilities

PETALING JAYA (June 15): The Selangor state government will soon be discussing a building plan application by OSK Properties for public facilities to be constructed on state land adjacent to the revitalised Atria Damansara project in Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya.

Selangor state executive councillor for local government, new villages and factory legalisation Ean Yong Hian Wah said the matter would be brought up at the state executive council meeting this week.

Yong said he was aware of the case but had to look into the details before it was presented to the state executive council.

The Petaling Jaya City Council needs the state’s signature to approve building plans for development.

The issue was raised recently because the council, in a letter to Atria Damansara dated May 25, 2015, had cited a meeting by its One Stop Centre (OSC) on May 19 which found that the developer had yet to comply with some requirements as stipulated in the planning permission dated Oct 28, 2013.

The project is aimed at revitalising the Atria shopping mall in Damansara Jaya.

The requirements that OSK has to comply with as per the planning permission is to build and transfer to MBPJ public facilities including a food court, a hall and car park on two lots of state-owned land adjacent to Atria Damansara.

MBPJ had at the May 19 meeting instructed the developer to submit an undertaking to complete the project together with a RM10 million performance guarantee deposit to the council.

This was as an assurance to the council and especially to the public that the project will be completed as there was no effort by the developer to push for the building plan for the public facilities to be approved.

MBPJ councillor Lee Suet Sen said that this was why the MBPJ OSC had imposed those conditions, and the council even took the initiative to submit the building plans to the state for its approval as the land owner on behalf of the developer.

The developer, however, had argued that it had not started construction of public facilities at the site because it had yet to receive approval for building plans it had submitted to MBPJ.

In a statement in response to questions from The Malaysian Insider, OSK Properties said: “We have every intention to construct the facilities but it cannot be done because MBPJ has not yet approved our building plan submission.

"No developer can begin work without the relevant approvals. We will wait for the relevant approvals from MBPJ, thereafter, we will commence construction of the facilities with every intention to further upgrade and enhance the value of properties in Damansara Jaya as well as the livelihood of the people in the community.”

The Atria Damansara revitalisation is scheduled for completion at the end of the year. However, earlier this year, a partial Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) was given to the developer by the council to allow the podium shopping mall to begin operations.

The Atria Shopping Gallery, which replaces the old Atria Shopping Centre, opened its doors on May 28.

A full CCC, which will allow businesses and offices to operate out of Small Office/Flexible Office (SOFO) suites, will not be given until all requirements in the planning permission for the public facilities have been met.

The main project involves redeveloping the old three and four-storey commercial building into two 16-storey blocks and a shopping podium, which includes basement-level car parks, multi-level car parks and SOFO suites.