The natural progression of the life of a piece of land is normally originally forest. Then, when man first steps into it, it becomes agricultural land, from vegetable planting to rubber and palm oil.

Then, after a while, that land is likely to be converted into housing and industrial. Subang Jaya was once an estate, now a thriving township.

But why halt the conversion of land from agriculture to residential and commercial purposes?

1. Land is limited. We have seen KL spread out to PJ years ago, then to Subang Jaya, now onwards to Kemuning, Bkt Jelutong, Setia Alam, Rawang shows that the trend of development is to build low, and spread out. If this continues, eventually we'll run out of forrest.
2. Preservation of water catchment areas. Selangor is running out of water. We are now building a multibillion pipeline from Pahang to meet out water needs. The further back we push our forest, the worse this scenario is going to be.
3. Inefficiency of land use. There are many old, worn out housing and industrial areas that need to be rejuvenated. However the task of doing so is made difficult economically if we keep opening up more land for low cost terrace housing.
4. Increased cost in providing public service. If we build townships spread out, cost of providing services such as roads, drainage, garbage collection, etc.
5. Massive traffic jams that we see today throughtout the Klang Valley that we today is partially a result of this. When the township is spread out, its hard to provide efficient public transport, and everyone uses cars.
6. Redevelopment to fix previous town planning mistakes. A lot of existing townships were not properly planned. As a result of that, there is lack of proper open spaces, recreational opportunities, places of worships, public services such as government hospitials, fire stations, etc. Redeveloping townships can bring corrections to this mistakes and improvements to our quality of life.

As with point #3, redevelopment is more expensive than building on agriculture land. By freezing the conversion of agriculture land, developers will be encourage to redevelop existing townships, under the leadership and guidance of the state authority.

Dear residents,

JKP3 first ever family day is coming up soon. The whole objective is to bring residents of USJ together, for a time of FUN!

Details:
Date: Saturday, 19th June 2010
Time: 5pm to 10pm (yes, its at night!)
Venue: MPSJ Sports Complex, USJ5

What will be happening?
1. 500 goodie bags for the first 500 families to arrive. First come, first serve.
2. Lucky draws throughout the event. We are working hard looking for sponsors for some cool prizes. No purchase needed, everyone who comes can get a chance to win.
3. Telematch for kids and families. This would be from 5pm to 7pm.
4. Football clinic organized by Brazil Football Club, from 530pm to 7pm. Target group: 8yrs old and above, boys and girls welcome
5. Clown show
6. Fun fair
7. Food stalls throughout the night
8. Flea market, also throughout the night.
9. Free Health Screening for all residents.
10. Concert & Local Performances
11. Football Exhibition Matches

Items we are working on:
1. Face painting for kids
2. Bouncy castles
3. Sand art
4. Mini treasure hunt

So, keep the day free and see you there!

If this goes thru, at last MPSJ summons would have some bite, and this will help with enforcement and bringing order especially to commercial centers.

This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my)
URL: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/19/central/6286711&sec=central

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REPEAT traffic and parking offenders beware — if an amendment of the Road Transport Act at the next Parliament session goes through, it will see the linking of local council summonses to road tax renewal.

Now, offenders need only settle summonses that are issued by the traffic police or Road Transport Department (JPJ) for offences like using a handphone while driving, speeding, not stopping at traffic lights or driving with an expired road tax, before they renew their road tax.

A local council issues summonses to offenders who do not pay for their parking, double park, or park at non-designated parking spots.
Gotcha!: Traffic offenders may have to settle their local council summonses before they can renew their road tax if an amendment to the Road Transport Act is passed at the Parliament session in June.
Traffic offenders will be slapped with a RM80 fine in areas under the Subang Jaya Municipal Council's (MPSJ) jurisdiction.

A grace period is given whereby they can appeal for their fines to be lowered if it is paid early.

However, many offenders choose to ignore the local council summonses as it does not affect their road tax renewal.

According to the MPSJ, the council issues an average of 17,000 traffic summonses a month, of which only 17% is settled.

The only way that the council can enforce its traffic and parking rules is to haul offenders to court, but there are limitations in terms of time and resources.

A source said a proposal was brought up during a recent briefing with the JPJ.

"If an amendment to Section 17(1)(d) of the Road Transport Act 1978 (Act 333) is passed at the next Parliament session in June, local councils would be able to link up with the JPJ.

"When that happens, offenders will have to settle their local council summonses before renewing their road tax.

"This link is necessary in urban councils where parking issues are especially rampant," he said.

Among the urban councils the source cited are the Petaling Jaya City Council, Klang Municipal Council, Kajang Municipal Council, Selayang Municipal Council and MPSJ.

There are about 150 local councils in Malaysia.
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Have you paid up?

MPSJ gets tough with assessment tax defaulters

By: by Meena L. Ramadas (May 17, 2010)

MPSJ personnel seize a sofa from a furniture shop in Taman Puchong Prima.

THE Subang Jaya Muncipal Council (MPSJ) is cracking the whip on assessment tax defaulters, and residential areas will not be spared.

MPSJ Revenue director Sharifah Rohaida Abd Rahman said assessment tax is overdue on 30% of residential properties in the muni-cipality, which equates to about RM7 million.

"The total assessment tax from residential properties is approximately RM23 million a year," she said after an MPSJ operation to collect the overdue payments.

"We have been focusing so much on acq-uiring overdue fees from commercial prop-erties which have higher assessment tax, to the extent that residential property defaulters have been overlooked."

Sharifah said some home owners have not paid assessment tax for over 10 years.

She said the assessment rate for residential properties is 5% of the value of the property, vacant land: 2% of the value, and commercial properties 6% of the market value or rental income.

Tax is payable twice a year in January and July, and owners are given two months to settle the payments.

Sharifah said the council had issued 250,148 assessment bills amounting to RM74.7 million up to April 30, and collected 90% of taxes.

The MPSJ operation last week was con-ducted on 20 premises, nine of which were commercial properties with a total arrears of RM103,364.

The council seized four items from a fur-niture shop in Taman Puchong Prima whose owner had failed to pay assessment tax for four years, amounting to RM2,538.

Three sofa sets, each worth RM800, and a lounge sofa worth RM200 were seized as a guarantee for payment.

Sharifah said that if the owner did not pay the overdue sum in a week, the council would auction the items.

She said the operation started last month and will end on June 30.

Defaulters will be issued with notices. Sharifah said they would be given 15 days from the date on the notice to pay the outstanding sum, failing which the council will conduct property seizure.

"But we give them an additional seven days on top of the 15 days to pay up out of compas-sion."

Municipal councillor Cheah Sang Soon said the council was serious about collecting overdue assessment tax from residential home owners as people can afford to pay for it.

"People have a lackadaisical attitude as they think the council will not take action if they do not pay up," he said.

Cheah said that under Section 148, Act 171 of the Local Government Act 1976, the local auth-ority has the power to seize assets from a resi-dent or any party found to owe the authority assessment tax.

--- end ---    --- Article Information --- This article was emailed from Sun2Surf. Article's URL: http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=46835 

The measures described is my previous post on traffic light timings has just been programmed and effective immediately. MPSJ will be monitoring the effects of the changes.

MPSJ's committee for traffic and public transportation met last Friday. I had an endless among of issues to raise, but due to time constraints, we had to prioritize them. Some of the outcomes:

1. SS19 traffic light on Persiaran Tujuan will revent to 1 lane turning right from Persiaran Tujuan into SS19/6.

2. The constant jam due to cars on yellow box in from of Summit USJ traffic light. - MPSJ will call Kesas for a meeting, as Kesas operates the other traffic light. Both traffic lights needs to be in sync, to help reduce the jam, and the frustration of road users that lead to blocking the yellow boxes

3. Persiaran Tujuan traffic lights, which got new peak hour timings May 2009 - this peak hour timings which previously was from Monday to Friday will be extended to Saturday lunch hour also. No changes for Sunday.

4. Timing for traffic lights at J11, intersection between Persiaran Tujuan and Persiaran Kewajipan will be modified during evening peak hour, to give extra 30 secs for traffic heading into USJ from SS19. The right turn from USJ at this traffic light turning into Persiaran Murni will be reduced as well. This change applies only during evening peak hours.

5. Timing of traffic lights at Persiaran Setia/Persiaran Tujuan will be adjusted during the morning peak hours. Timing from Perisaran Tujuan heading out towards federal highway will increase by approx 20secs, to help clear the backlog around USJ12.

6. Traffic lights at TP1 housing area intersecting with Persiaran Setia may change to on demand only type, to prevent unnecessary green light cycles. Mr Keshmindar, councillor for TP areas, will consult with the residents before any implementation takes place.

A number of other issues, like optimizing the traffic light timings along Persiaran Bakti will be discussed in the coming meeting.

Email from a USJ11 resident:

1. No flow, in or out from Persiaran Setia (at the USJ3ABCD bridge) into Kesas, as both Kesas and residents reject it. Kesas, to maintain their traffic count, residents, to prevent more cars coming thru Pers Setia. Also, it is very near the Elite Highway interchange.

2. No link from Persiaran Tujuan to Kesas. Many reason given by, among them
- Too sharp a curve
- Too near proposed u-turn (u-turn to phase out traffic lights at Kesas-Kewajipan)
- Not enough space, may have to encroach on houses at the corner.
- And I'm sure Kesas doesn't want to increase non-toll-paying traffic on their highway.

3. Federal Highway-Kesas link is under study, option still open though from discussion, seems like chances are unlikely to happen

4. TP4- Kesas link is under study, option still open though from discussion, seems like chances are unlikely to happen. Very little space between the petrol stations and proton, and taking into account the motorcycle lane.

5. Improvements that are closer to reality
a) widening of Kesas from Kewajipan to Hicom from 3 lanes to 4 lanes
b) construction of 2 u-turns, one before Sunway toll & another between Kewajipan & Tujuan.

War on dengue at USJ 11

By THO XIN YI
thoxinyi@thestar.com.my Photo by BRIAN MOH