Councillor Lim Yi Wei of the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) plans to prohibit the installation of billboards across all open spaces throughout the city
“Once this proposal is accepted, we can gazette all open spaces as billboard-free areas,” she said.
Lim intends to table the new proposal in the next Town Planning Committee and hopes to get enough votes from her fellow councillors.
She came up with this proposal after a contractor started building a billboard in Petaling Jaya Section 11. The residents are opposing the billboard as it is located right in the middle of the only park in the vicinity.
The park is sited on a long and narrow strip of land along the Federal Highway, with a children’s playground on one end.
According to one of the area’s residents, Nazdriah Bius, the construction of the billboard’s posts commenced around three weeks ago, but the contractor failed to install hoardings.
He said the residents were not informed beforehand. Workers just suddenly arrived one day and closed the road and brought in a crane, so they can unload equipment.
VT Doshi, another resident, also said that they have filed a complaint against it. Although MBPJ issued a stop-work order, construction subsequently resumed.
Meanwhile, Bukit Gasing Assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran stated that the billboard was formerly situated near the Kota Darul Ehsan arch, but the owner was instructed to relocate it and the city council recommended the park as the new site.
“While I sympathise with the billboard operator, the billboard should not be placed in a park. A playground should not be a site for a billboard.”
The contractor may have thought that he is permitted to relocate the billboard in the park without first obtaining all the necessary permits, such as planning and structural permits from MBPJ.
This is because it is not possible to get a temporary occupancy license (TOL) for the new site from the Petaling Land Office, as the strip of parkland where the billboard is being built is not a Federal Highway reserve land and is gazetted as an open space.
Image sourced from The Star.
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