"One of the most serious threats facing the council is over building in the city. I will not call this development. Development is not about erecting more high-rise buildings in every imaginable plot of land all over the island, with scant regard to neighbourhood, street scape, traffic congestion and liveability. Buildings with heritage value, even if not yet designated as such, are torn down illegally, as with the Khaw Sim Bee mansion, or legally as in the dismantling of a heritage value building along Macalister Road, to make way for the Tropicana project.
Last month building guidelines on height control along Scotland Road, a designated protocol road, were changed to allow a developer to double the number of floors he can build from 12 to 22 on a small plot of one-acre land. In another case, submission for approval has been made for construction of a 38-storey hotel on a small plot of land measuring 29,000 sq ft in a residential area along Jln Tanjong Tokong and Pantai Molek. There is good development and there is bad development. Such practices, in my mind, do not constitute good or sustainable development.
Let me now touch on the running of the Council. The Council exists to serve ratepayers and the public. Section 23 of the Local Government Act 1976 states that all meetings of the local authority shall be open to the public and to representatives of the press unless the local authority by resolution at the meeting otherwise decides, although this clause does not apply to any committee unless such committee decides otherwise."
For full speech, see http://anilnetto.com/democracy/civil-society/dr-lim-mah-huis-resignation-speech-penang-island-city-council/
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