KK: Act fast on congestion call

Multi-storey car parks are essential short and medium term solutions, but they are not the final solution to the traffic congestion in the city, said Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) Sabah Chapter chief Lo Su Yin. The medium and long term solution must be a well planned public transport system, he said at the 37th annual dinner of PAM Sabah Chapter at Magellan Sutera on Saturday.

 Multi-storey car parks are essential short and medium term solutions

“The situation of traffic jam in Kota Kinabalu will reach crisis point if we do not act now and plan ahead,” Lo said. “I urge the Mayor to take the initiative to study the matter urgently and come up with holistic solutions.”

Lo said it is difficult to imagine how the car-dominated economy can survive the double jeopardy of the climate change and the end of cheap oil. “A changed professional approach is demanded by the accelerating transformations in the environment for making and managing our buildings and places,” he said. “These transformations are arising from the desperate global need to escape the toxic combination of short term thinking and institutional inertia that has a stranglehold on most of the public life.”

Lo said countryside and agricultural lands are under increasing pressure due to urbanisation and the need to house the rising population.

“More roads have to be built with existing roads widened to cater for the increase in private car ownership.

“City centres are being dissected by seas of highways and isolated building blocks, becoming unfriendly to pedestrians. All this is depleting our precious land and natural resources,” he said. “We need to review our outdated by-laws to allow and encourage the majority of the population to live, work and play within 10 minutes of walking distance. “We should be building dwellings within city centre to co-exist with shops, offices, government buildings and public amenities. “This will not only help to alleviate pressure on greenfield lands, it will create less toxic gases to our atmosphere, giving more air to the pollution.”

Lo said he will propose to his committee to study the public transportation plan as a contribution to the community. He hoped the City Hall will effectively and speedily complete the public hearings and submit the plan for approval and adoption. Meanwhile, Mayor Datuk Abidin Madingkir, in a speech at the event read by City Hall director general Datuk Yeo Boon Hai, said the City Hall is grateful to PAM Sabah Chapter for its very comprehensive submission and interest in the planning of Kota Kinabalu City and in particular the Draft Kota Kibabalu Local Plan 2020.

“I realise it requires much hard work to get the majority of your members to agree to something which you as a group find important. “I also thank PAM Sabah Chapter for all the hard work, patience and negotiations put into the review of the residential building setbacks which have now been incorporated into the Memorandum to the Draft KK Local Plan 2020. “You will be pleased to note that after many months of dialogue with the Central Town and Country Planning Board, City Hall is finally successful and has convinced the Central Board that all previous plans have been superseded and are obsolete and all developments plans are to be assessed against the Draft Local Plan 2020,” said Abidin.

He said City Hall’s next task is to hold hearings on the objections to the Draft KK Local Plan 2020 and to deal with objections before submitting the amended Draft KK Local Plan 2020 to the Central Board for its adoption.

Source: Borneo Post