Development Control System and GIS for Local Authority in Malaysia:

A Case of Kuala Lumpur City Hall

Ahris Yaakup, Foziah Johar and Ismail Mohd Yusof

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
81300 Skudai, Johor
Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the functions of local authority particularly in the context of planning
and development control. The process of development control involves a technique for the
systematic compilation of expert quantitative analysis and qualitative assessment of a
project's land use and development viability, including its effect on the surrounding area, and
the presentation of results in a way which enables the importance of the predicted results,
and the scope for modifying or mitigating them, to be properly evaluated by the relevant
decision making body before a planning application decision is rendered. Taking Kuala
Lumpur as an example this paper will demonstrate the development of database and its
application for development and building control. The application indicates that the
functionality of GIS can be enhanced, i.e. by adding new model and analytical tools to
existing systems and by using the GIS toolkit to best effect. Consequently it will be used to
assist decision-making, taking into account among other things, the current scenarios of the
proposed development, physical constraint and future impacts.

1 INTRODUCTION

In Malaysia, the current method of planning adopted a continuous, cyclical

system approach based on the identification of needs and goals, the formulation
and evaluation of alternative courses of actions and monitoring of adopted
programs. This is required in light of rapid urbanisation which increases the
pressure for intensive development in most major towns in Peninsular
Malaysia. The local authority for most major towns faces problems as regard
to development control process, namely the inavailability of local plan to guide
future development direction thus creating difficulties for decision making
process. Given the dynamic nature or urban development, it is particularly
important to have a well-conceived information system which can serve as the
eyes and ears of planning process. It provides for the monitoring and
surveillance of compliance with planning regulations and it serves as early
warning system with regard to friction and sources of shortfalls in the process
of urban planning and management. Information is therefore needed at local
authority level to facilitate administrative procedures, policy planning and plan
implementation. Also, the advent of corporate planning and the continued
squeeze on local authority expenditure required local authorities to examine
critically whether rational decisions are undertaken. This paper demonstrates
how development control can be substantially improved by using GIS as one of
the main tools of planning (Scholten and Padding, 1990).
2 LOCAL AUTHORITIES FUNCTIONS AND THE USE OF GIS IN
MALAYSIA

The Malaysian administrative system is divided into three major levels of

hierachy: the Federal Government, State Government and Local Government,
the latter being the local authority for its area. In 1976, the Local Government
Act 1976 (Act 171) was promulgated providing a consolidated framework for
local authorities. It also empowers the authority to undertake a wide range of
functions. The planning powers of local authorities were thereof stipulated in
the allied Town and Country Planning Act. The act stated that the local
authority shall be the local planning authority for the area of the local authority,
thus, conferring a primary physical planning responsibility at the local level and
not at the state level as previously practiced. To carry out this function, the
local authority shall prepare a two-tier development plan for the purpose of
organising, controlling and planning the development and use of land and
buildings in their area. Strategic or policy decisions are to be incorporated in
structure plans while detailed decisions are to be laid out in local plans
(Yaakup et al., 1994).

It is clear that development at the local level will involve a lot of policies and
implementation decisions which have to consider the cost and benefit to every
level of urban dwellers. The interdependency between investments and their
environment and the need to integrate all groups of inhabitants in urban society
under decent living condition would be the prime concern of urban planners
and managers at local level. Given the wide range of activities, over the years,
the local authoroties have amassed a huge amount of information. A
substantial portion of these information is geographical in nature such as
layout of housing schemes, road and drainage system, composition and
distribution of population, distribution of land use and so forth. Unfortunately,
these data are often inaccessible even to the local administrators. The main
reason being the database management system which is based on manual filing
system which makes retrieval of information difficult and time consuming. To
alleviate the problem, a number of authorities employ computer databased
system such as Data Base IV, Filemaker, Statistical Analytical System or
Statistical Package for Social Sceientist. While these systems help
tremendously in information retrieval and analysis, they do not handle spatial
data very well. Thus, jobs assigned to the system are quite limited to routine
retrieval (Yaakup et al., 1995).

Given the dynamic nature of planning and management carried out at local
level, it is not suprising that the local authorities become one of the largest
users of GIS in advanced and developed countries. To date, in Malaysia, only
about 10 of the approximately 132 District Councils and 14 Municipalities
have invested in GIS. The reluctance of local authorities to accept the
challenge to embrace the technology is due mainly to lack of support from the
management level, the lack of inhouse expertise with which to make use of the
system and the high cost of GIS. On the other hand, the local authorities
particularly of major towns, are now faced with increasingly complex urban
problems and inevitably urban planners and managers have to come up with
better solutions. Of late there have been an enormous improvement in the
price and performance of computer hardware and functionality of software
packages, such that a wide range of specific demands for the management,
analysis and presentation of data can now be met in a cost-effective manner. A
direct consequence of these new oportunities has been the rapid growth in the
number of users interested in developing the urban planning and monitoring
applications.

3 DEVELOPMENT CONTROL - PROCESS AND PROCEDURE

In the context of urban planning, the present system of development control in

most local authorities in Malaysia is by the granting or refusal of planning
permission for development. The local authority is empowered to grant or
refuse any planning application in its area. The recent amendment to the Town
and Country Planning Act requires that certain planning application shall be
accompanied by a development proposal report which include a written
statement and a plan to (i) describes the present condition of the land to which
the application relates; and (ii) describes the proposed development, in
particular on how it would be likely to have a significant effect on the built
environment (Ali, 1990). In most cases, a development proposal report
involves a technique for the systematic compilation of expert quantitative
analysis and qualitative assessment of the proposed project’s land use and
development viability, including its effect on the surrounding area, and the
presentation of results in a way which enables the importance of the predicted
results, and the scope for modifying or mitigating them, to be properly
evaluated by the relevant decision making body before a decision on an
application is rendered. Information required for a development proposal
report would therefore include the following major aspects:

i status of land and restrictions;

ii land use analysis and intensity of development - this includes land use
zoning, population density zoning, height limit, plot ratio, plinth area,
predetermined public area;
iii analysis of issues and potential of sites - this includes site location,
existing drainage system, topography and slope, existing road system,
existing land use, natural features which must be preserved and
development potential;
iv analysis of surrounding development - this includes infrastucture, type,
intensity and facilities available in the surrounding area;
v the policies of the structure plan and local plan if available.

In addition, a planning proposal report should also observe the planning

standards or other policies which may imposed from time to time. The report
will then have to be verified by the local authority concerned, in particular by
the Planning Division. The report together with other considerations will be
used as a basis for making decision.

The actual practice of development control however may differ from one local
authority to another depending mainly on the size and status of the authority.
In this study, the local authority of Kuala Lumpur, more commonly known as
the Kuala Lumpur City Hall is chosen as the case study.

4 DEVELOPMENT CONTROL IN KUALA LUMPUR CITY HALL

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia forms the centre of government and
economic growth activities for the Klang Valley and the country. The
development of Kuala Lumpur has taken the form of a definite concentration
of physical and economic activities in the centre with ribbon developments
taking place along the major arterials leading into the city. The City Hall of
Kuala Lumpur is the largest municipal authority as far as size and functions are
concern. The administration and management of City Hall are undertaken by
20 different departments or units including the Secretariat, each having its
own head. Together these departments are headed by a Director General
who is assisted by two Deputy Director Generals. The Mayor, appointed by
the Prime
Minister heads the entire organisation and is an administrator with vast power
and authority over decision making as far as development is concerned.

All applications for development in the city of Kuala Lumpur will have to be
submitted to City Hall for approval. Depending on the type and scale of
development, these applications will be processed and considered by either one
of the following committees: (i) Town Planning Committee 1; and (ii) Town
Planning Committee 11. The Town Planning Committee 1 which is chaired by
the Mayor looks at the proposal for comprehensive and large scale
development, layout plans, change of use of land and increased density, and the
application for the use of government land. This committee comprises the
Director General of City Hall, Deputy Secretary to the Minister of Federal
Territory, and all the directors of the technical divisions. Before the
application is reviewed by this committee, it will have to go through all the
technical departments, and other related government departments for
comments and recommendations. Based on these comments and
recommendations, the committee will then decide whether to approve or
approve with conditions or reject the proposed development , after which the
Development Order will be issued by the Mayor.

The Town Planning Committee 11 looks into the application for development
of shop houses, detach houses, mosques, industrial buildings, etc. The
procedure adopted by the Town Planning Committee 11 is similar to the later
committee, except that the Development Order will be issued by the Director
General.

4.1 Issues of Development Control in the Study Area

The Commercial Central Area of Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan was selected as

a case study for implementing the GIS development control. This area has the
highest concentration of development compared to the rest of the city. It has a
mixture of traditional shop houses, office complexes and modern hotel-cum
shopping complexes. To date the area still receives numerous applications
either for new development or redevelopment. The City Hall receives many
applications to redevelop the traditional shop houses to be repleced by a more
up-beat commercial buildings (Adom, 1992). Such small scale development
often carried out by private developers can be completed in record time but
does little to contribute to the esthetic aspect of the city since it is done in a
piecemeal manner. Applications for new development include hotel or
shopping complexes and mega projects (floor space of more than 1 million
square feet) normally carry out based on privatisation concept. Potential areas
being planned for such developments include open space, government land,
school and river.

Presently, the development of this area is based on the rather outdated

development plan of 1970 which does not provide adequate guidelines to
control the developments. In addition the City Hall applied some form of
planning standards and restrictions such as plot ratio, density and plinth area.
Such restrictions can still be negotiated by compensating with payment of
development charges, provision of car parking and other facilities, surrendering
land for road widening or providing building setback. The concern is that the
development of the area if not properly and efficiently controlled it will not
only adversely affect the form of the planned growth but the concern is that the
image and identity of Kuala Lumpur will be eventually lost. To plan and
control development in this area requires an information system in this area
requires an information system that can not only assist in day-to-day but
should aid in formulating development strategies able to cope with the fast
changing scene.

4.2 The Concept Of GIS for Development Control for Kuala Lumpur
City Hall

In light of tremendous pressure of rapid development while having no local

plan to precisely guide the development control of the city of Kuala Lumpur,
necessitates an information system which not only keep and display data
pertaining to planning application for the purpose of administrative functions
but it should also be designed to facilitate planning at strategic level. Figure
1 shows the conceptual design of the information system for the purpose of
development control which is based on the planning process and the
mechanism of development control that is currently being practised. The
control of development which involves the process of analising the
appropriateness of planning application requires various data from the relevant
agencies. A planning application will be assessed in terms of current
development scenario, land information, planning requirements and planning
design. The application will not only be reviewed in terms of basic utilities
(access, water supply, sewerage and telecommunication) but also public
facilities ( availability of public transport, educational facilities, religious
facillities and safety factor).
It is important that the GIS developed for development control to have the following
features:

i Capable of analysing development strategies in terms of the roles and functions of

Kuala Lumpur taking into consideration the policies outlined by the government.
This can be done using current data on floor space of the development area as well as
the whole planning area. By comparing this information and the control figure
projected by the Kuala Lumpur Structure plan, the effectiveness of the development
policies can be evaluated;

ii Capable of providing information to access the implications of planning application

upon the provision of social and community facilities. The implications is easier to
analyse and display if information on floor space is based on planning unit area;

iii Capable of identifying potential land available for development. This is useful to both
the public and private sectors to determine future supply of floor space. Land supply
is an economically dynamic process and very much dependent on government
policies. Such information therefore form the basis for strategic planning.

iv Capable of identifying areas receiving development pressures to facilitate control and

monitoring of the areas;

v Capable of facilitating technical evaluation of planning applications by displaying data

on land use, plot ratio, transport system ect. used by other agencies involved in
technical aspects;

vi Information on development and administrative polices formulated by the

municipality which has been translated into spatial entity is important to enable the
planners to advice applicants. The system should therefore be capable of displaying
information on development status, surrounding developments, available
infratructures and other planning requirements.

The relevance of the above features to the process of development control can be simplified
in the following table (Table 1).
 Table 1: Development control process and functions of information system.

Stage Activity Function of Information System

Initial Discussion • Consultation to • Data retrieval

owner/ developer a. existing development
regarding potential, b. development status,
planning requirement, approval
policies involved in c. development plan
the site. d. planning policies

Processing Planning • Registration • Identify potential land fro

Application • Site visit development
• Gathering data from • Translate policies formulated
various department into spatial context
• Identify planning • Identify development pressure
issues area
• Preparing technical
report
• Analyse the
application

Technical Sub • Comment on technical • Data retrieval from various

Committee reguirement agencies
• Recommend the • Able to facilitate technical
tchnical amendment to evaluation
applicant

Town Planning • Formulate and review • Capable of analysisng the

Committee planning policies development strategy
• Considering planing • Provide information to
application evaluate the implication or
planning application
5 GIS FOR DEVELOPMENT CONTROL IN THE KUALA LUMPUR
CITY HALL

The design of GIS development control is based on the procedure and process
which involved the following stages (Yusoff, 1997):

i) Initial discussion
ii) Registration
iii) Invitation for objection
iv) Development control process
v) Consideration by the Urban Technical Committee
vi) Consideration by the Urban Planning Committee
vii) Updating

5.1 Initial Discussion

This is the initial stage of the development control procedure whereby the
applicants hold a discussion with the planners concerning the proposed
development. Planners are expected to give advise on the feasibility of the
application. Planners thus need to have information on current devlopment
strategies, status of development, provision of development plan, planning
restrictions and so forth relating to proposed site. Presently, planners need to
sieve through a lot information before such information can be obtained and
this can be time consuming and tedious. At this stage, GIS can easily provide
current development scenario and planners can anticipate the feasiblity of the
proposed development.

5.2 Registration

Every formal planning application is registered and reviewed by the

Administration Section. Information from new application will be keyed in
while spatial data in the application have to be consistent with the base map.

5.3 Invitation for objections

Every application involving a change of use or density will have to go through

the process of objection by neighbouring landowners. The adjacent
landowners to which the application relates will have to be indentified and
notice served, inviting them to voice their objections to the proposed
development, if any. At this stage GIS should be able to list the adjacent
landowners and capable of displaying the changing development scenarios of
the related area to be used as a platform in considering the objections.
5.4 Development Control Process

Before the Technical Committee can decides on the application, planners have
to inspect sites, verify the planning evaluation report submitted to them and
prepare their own evaluation report. Such report can be done efficiently if the
planners can get access to the relevant data, such as road system, land status,
ect., which, presently, are kept by various departments. GIS therefore have to
be designed to enable easy access to those information and facilitate data
analysis in determining the potential and constraints of the proposed
development and able to assist planners in generating development alternatives.

5.5 Consideration by the Urban Technical Committee

At this stage, the Technical Committee which consists the representatives

from the various departments will meet to review the proposed development.
GIS should be able to display the relevant data from the various departments to
facilitate those representatives to give their comments. GIS should be capable
to indicate the implications of the proposed development and thus providing
"early warning systems" if such development can adversely affect the city
growth. For example, the proposed floor space should be able to indicate the
traffic generated by the development, thus the committee can decide whether
the current road system in that locality can accommodate the additional traffic.
"What-if" analysis should also be part of the exercise to generate suitable
development features based on different assumptions and criteria instead of
rejecting the application outright.

5.6 Consideration by the Town Planning Committee

The Town Planning Committee plays a crucial role in the whole development
control process. The Committee have to formulate development strategies and
outline planning policies, taking into account the national policies and Cabinet
directives which have to to viewed in spatial contexts. They also reviewed
development strategies contained in the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan and
policies that have been implemented. GIS should be able to give them
adequate information to facilitate decision making to the proposed
development.

5.7 Updating

GIS for development control will have to be maintained and planning

information will have to be updated continuously. Once the decision is made,
both the spatial and attribute database should be updated.
6 IMPLEMENTING GIS FOR DEVELOPMENT CONTROL

The implementation of GIS for the purpose of controlling and monitoring

development involved 4 stages, i.e:

i) Data gathering and updating

ii) Development of GIS database
iii) Development of user interface
iv) Application of GIS database

6.1 Data gathering and updating

This stage involved updating of both attribute and spatial data from the
various sources. Most data will have to be verified since most available data is
not up-to-date and previously maintained in various form, size and format.

6.2 Development of GIS Database

The Development of GIS database involve:

a) Development of spatial database

Spatial database are built on the base map using the scale of 1: 1584 which is
currently used by the Department of Planning and Building Control. The
available hardcopy maps have to be rigously up-dated because of the fast-
changing development proposals by the developers. Maps are updated,
digitised and maintained in the State Plane Coordinate System.

b) Development of attribute data

Attribute data were converted using Dbase and referenced using common map
identifier. The required data include planning information, socio-economic and
environmental data. Data are obtained from land records, while information
on planning dand development are gathered from the pertinent departmental
records. Data such as building features, current land use and activities which
are not always readily available will have to assembled through field survey.

The GIS database has included the following information:

i) land use according to the Comprehensive Development Plan No.1039

used by the City Hall as a basis for development control;
ii) existing land use;
iii) proposed land use;
iv) building categories;
v) land ownership;
vi) building height;
vii) development status;
viii) buildings covered by the Rent Control Act (Act 168);and
ix) plot ratio.

7 EXAMPLE OF GIS APPLICATION

Once the GIS database has been developed, it can be intensively interogated to
provide general development scenarios for every planning unit area, for
examples:

i Development of commercial floor space area 1980-2000

ii Composition of commercial floor area 1980 - 1995 - 2000
iii Development potential for every planning unit area

These are examples of basic data which can be combined with other data to be
used for development control (Figure 2, Figure 3 and Figure 4).

8 CUSTOMIZATION PROGRAM FOR DEVELOPMENT CONTROL

The design of GIS for development control is based on Arcview software.

Several views have been developed based on planning requirements to facilitate
data retrieval and analysis (Yusoff, 1997). These view are suitable to be used
by planners in giving out advice, in processing development control, in
analysing the feasibility of proposed development and in making decision.
Examples of view that have been developed are:

i Existing development
ii Land information
iii Building information
iv Buildings covered by the Rent Control Act
v Planning requirements
vi Development status
vii Design guidelines
viii Current development policies
ix Commercial development
x Commercial development potential
xii Control and administrative

These views can considerably enhanced the rationality of decision making

because of the readily information available to those involved in the
development control process (Figure 5).
8 CONCLUSION

The system that has been developed for the purpose of development control
could be used by many parties involved in the process to be used as reference
point in evaluating and deciding on the urban growth management programs in
a more cost effective manner. This study however only demonstrates how
information required by decision makers can be displayed and further study
needs to be done to develop a decision support system to evaluate the
suitability of a planning application.

REFERENCES

Adom, R. (1992) Peraturan Mengemukakan Permohonan Perancangan ke

Unit Pengekalan dan Seni Bandar, Unpublished Report, Department of
Planning and Building Control, Kuala Lumpur City Hall.

Ali, R.M. (1990) Development Control Guidelines - Managing the Physical

Development of the Federal Teterritory, paper presented at the National
Conference on the Challenge and Opportinities in Urban Development, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia,

Scholten and Padding (1990) Working with Geographical Information System

in a Policy Environment, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design,
Vol. 17, pp. 405-416.

Yaakup, A.B., Ibrahim, M. and Johar, F. (1995) Incorporating GIS into

Sustainable Urban and Regional Planning: The Malaysian Case, paper
presented at the GeoInformatic'95 Hong Kong: International Symposium on
Remote Sensing, Geographical Information Systems dan Global Positioning
Systems in Sustainable Development and Environmental Monitoring, Hong
Kong, May 26-28, 1995.

Yaakup, A.B., Johar, F. and Dahlan, N.A. (1994) GIS and Decision Support
Systems for Local Authority in Malaysia, Proceedings of the 2nd International
Conference on Design and Decision Support Systems in Architecture and
Urban Planning, Vaals, The Netherlands, August 15-19, 1994.

Yusoff, I.M. (1997) Guna Pakai GIS untuk Kawalan Pembangunan, Kajian
Kes: Kawasan Perdagangan Pusat Kuala Lumpur, Unpublished M Sc
Dissertation, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia.