Community park gazetted as forest reserve
Maria J. Dass

The Kota Damansara Community Forest Park.

THE Kota Damansara Community Forest Park has been gazetted as a forest reserve for educational purposes. A formal announcement on this is expected sometime this week.

The state executive council gazetted the 343ha forest reserve following request from local level organisations such as Friends of Kota Damansara which has been pushing to preserve the forested area for years.

Residents fought to keep the Kota Damansara Community Forest Park, which covers 8% of the total green coverage area of Petaling Jaya, especially when there were proposals in the Petaling Draft Local Plan to allow commercial development in the area.

Prior to this, land in the area had been alienated by the former state government to Permodalan Negri Selangor Bhd, Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) and the Football Association of Selangor. Another section had been given to the Petaling Jaya City Council for a burial ground.

It is understood that there were initially plans to build an Islamic school near the site but this too had to make way for proposed commercial developments.

When contacted, Bukit Lanjan assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong said approvals for development had been given by the former state administration, but the forest which at that time was gazetted as a botanical garden had not been re-gazetted for development purpose.