Today Star
Thursday December 22, 2011
Residents protest against plan for access road in gated community
By STEPHEN THEN
stephenthen@thestar.com.my
MIRI: They have spent hundreds of thousands of ringgit to buy the private vacant land at high prices and build their homes in the serenity and perceived safety of a guarded and fenced-up residential estate because the place was promoted as a gated community.
Some families were said to have spent more than a million ringgit. That was in the early 2000s.
Now, they received notice from a property developer who wants to break down the fencing and use the road in their housing estate as a public access road where trucks, excavators and heavy machinery can pass through so that a forested area behind the estate can be opened up for new housing projects.
Stunned by these sudden developments, the 260-odd residents of Prima Villa a gated, high-class re-sidential estate here yesterday staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the housing estate along the Miri-Brunei highway to voice their concerns.
The residents, made up mainly of professionals working in local and multinational companies and their families, staged a silent protest and then handed over written petitions to the developers and the state authorities, including SUPP office and the State Land and Survey Department.
The Prima Villa Residents Committee chairman, Peter Chia, and its office-bearers also met with Miri Mayor Lawrence Lai and Naim Cendera, the property developer for the project 10 years ago.
Chia said the committee had recently received a notice from a property developer, Yung Lung Holdings Sdn Bhd, that it would use Prima Villa as access route to develop a housing project behind the residential estate.
We, the residents, have spent our life savings to build a home here because it was a gated community.
Many expatriates and foreigners paid high prices to build their homes via the Malaysia-My-Second-Home programme in Prima Villa here because of the added-privacy and security features.
Opening the area to trucks and heavy machinery will spoil the environment and jeopardise the safety of the residents, he told reporters after meeting Lai.
Chia said there were alternative roads that could be used without having to cut through Prima Villa.
Lai said he would look into the issue and forward the case to the State Land and Survey Department.
I understand the plight of the Prima Villa residents. They bought their land and built their homes there because of safety and environmental considerations since it is a gated community.
There may be other access routes that can be used. This is a gated community, a housing concept quite new to Miri and Sarawak. So far, there are only two gated communities in Miri Prima Villa and Bayshore.
These development issues affect the welfare of the residents, he told reporters after the meeting.
Naim Cendera general manager for Sales and Marketing, Alice Ting, also met the residents and received a petition on the matter from them.
She said her companys top bosses in Kuching knew about this matter and were looking into it.