George Town Special Area Plan to come into force on Aug 1

GEORGE TOWN: The long awaited George Town Special Area Plan (SAP) will come into force on Aug 1 according to Penang Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh (pix).

He said the SAP applied to the core heritage area comprising 2,569 buildings and the buffer zone comprising 2,444 buildings.

Jagdeep said the SAP was also to fulfill the monitoring criteria or "State of Conservation" by the Unesco World Heritage Committee (WHC).

"The SAP is needed to ensure the guidelines and recommendations under the Restoration Management Plan is implemented under Malaysian law," he said in a press conference today.

On the differences between the SAP and the Penang Island Municipal Council Base Development Plan 1996, Jagdeep
said the heritage area was demarcated into different precincts for different activities.

"The main difference is in relation to the conservation of buildings," he added.

In a related development, Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said the SAP meant tighter compliance requirements and elaborated on how these affected hotels operating within the heritage zone.

He said the current legitimatisation exercise for hotels will be extended for one more year, until Oct 31, 2017, but warned this was the third and final extension.

"We feel three years is enough time to comply, especially when the new regime is coming," he said, and pointed out that all businesses within the heritage zone are to be subject to the SPA provisions come Aug 1.