Malaysia Gazettes Nine More Open Spaces to Protect Kuala Lumpur’s Green Areas

The Malaysian government gazetted nine new open spaces in Kuala Lumpur on August 5 to enhance protection of the city’s green areas and balance urban development with public recreation ^{[1, 2]}. The total area covered by the newly gazetted open spaces is 5.15 hectares (51,502 square metres) ^{[1, 3, 4, 2]}.

These nine open spaces include Lot 82448 and Lot 82443 in the Batu sub-district near Desa ParkCity Lake; Lot 202030 in Setapak near Bayu Sentul Condominium; Lot 38500 in Petaling near Residensi Jalil Mas; Lot 25119 in Setapak near Masjid Salahuddin Al-Ayubbi in Taman Melati; Lot 39399 and Lot 39397 in Petaling near East Bukit Jalil Condominium; Lot 56219 in Batu near United Point Mall; and Lot 482950 in Kuala Lumpur near Padang TURF Tasik Permaisuri ^{[1, 3, 4, 2]}.

With these additions, Kuala Lumpur now has 552 gazetted open space lots spanning 468.36 hectares (4.68 million square metres), an area roughly equivalent to 655 football fields or 1.4 times the size of Perdana Botanical Gardens ^{[1, 3, 4, 2]}. The gazettement process is conducted by the Federal Territories Department and the Federal Territories Director of Lands and Mines Office ^{[1, 3, 4, 2]}.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh emphasized the importance of the move, saying, "Gazettement goes beyond an administrative exercise. It reinforces the protection of open spaces so they can continue serving as public areas for recreation, leisure and community activities, while minimising the risk of future land-use changes" ^[3].

The gazetted open spaces are intended to safeguard areas for public recreation, leisure, and community use, while limiting future land-use change ^{[1, 3, 2]}. The public can access detailed information on all gazetted open spaces in Kuala Lumpur through the MyHijau portal on the Federal Territories Director of Lands and Mines Office's website ^{[1, 3, 4, 2]}.

The government plans to continue monitoring and maintaining the gazettement records to ensure the protected status and public accessibility of these green spaces.