St Ignatius Church ordered to vacate car park as 2012 permission revoked

PETALING JAYA: The St Ignatius Church in Kelana Jaya here has been ordered again to vacate its car park after the Selangor irrigation and drainage department (DID) cancelled its 2012 permission to use the land.

The Petaling land and district office sent the church a letter on Oct 29 to vacate the land to make way for a river-widening project within 14 days, claiming the car park was squatting illegally on its land and, therefore, had run afoul of the National Land Code.

The department has since admitted to granting the church permission to use the land as a car park in 2012, but that it had decided to rescind the permission.

In a Nov 18 letter to the church made available to FMT, the department said the Petaling land and district office’s eviction notice on Oct 29 remained valid and in force.

Lawyer Joy Appukuttan, representing the church, said the department’s “steamrolling” of the issue had caused church officials and parishioners to worry about traffic congestion when the car park is removed.

“They first claimed they had no records of any approval. Then they agreed that we had received department approval in 2012.

“Now they want to evict us on such short notice. There is going to be chaos around the church if the car park is removed,” he told FMT.

He said traffic in and around the Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP), where the church is situated, was already congested.

“The authorities had better think hard about their decision and discuss a better resolution with all stakeholders. We hope for an amicable solution,” he said.

Joy also claimed that department officers who visited the site yesterday were unfriendly.

“We don’t understand why the authorities are behaving like this with the church. They did not give us prior notice of the proposed river-widening project. We only came to know of it from their notice dated Oct 29.

“We are ready to cooperate and work towards a resolution that benefits everyone. The authorities must approach this issue with fairness and proper consultation to avoid unnecessary disruptions,” he said.

According to Joy, the church originally had parking space at the front of its premises, but lost part of it due to the construction of the LDP in the late 1990s. The church then asked the department if it could use a plot of idle land behind the church as a car park.

“The church spent a significant amount of money levelling and preparing the area for use,” he said.

Petaling Jaya city councillor John Leong had previously told FMT that the river-widening work around Sungai Kayu Ara was to strengthen surrounding slopes and increase the river capacity by 25% as part of a RM16 million flood mitigation project.

He said without the project, many homes upstream would continue to suffer from flash floods, with the last one in March seeing homes flooded by foot-high waters.