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Letter To The Star: Not For Gated And Guarded Facility
I WISH to share my experience regarding the subject of gated and guarded neighbourhood. I object to it because of the following reasons (not in order of importance):
First, the committee is “elected” by a small number of attendees who have their own selfish agenda.
Second, only certain roads have road humps so as to divert traffic to other “certain” roads that don’t have them.
Third, guard houses are set up in places where certain members of the community will not be disturbed by the noise coming from the guards (such as their radios or smart phones), and the stopping and starting of cars.
Fourth, diverting traffic when vehicles drop off or pick up the children from the school, twice a day, to certain roads (to the advantage of certain members).
Which means the other roads will face noise, traffic jams and pollution twice a day, as well as speeding cars when they are running late.
Fifth, not every member can afford to pay the monthly fee. And then they have to put up with ugly stares from the guards.
VICTIMISED BY GnG
Kuala Lumpur
LETTERS
Thursday, 20 Jul 2017
https://www.thestar.com.my/
TAGS / KEYWORDS:
Letters , Gated And Guarded Communities
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2017/07/20/not-for-gated-and-guarded-facility/#hQT4iph5DtELGqPz.99
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Readers Voice Their Opinion on Gated and Guarded Communities
Community
Wednesday, 16 Dec 2009
12:00 AM MYT
THERE was overwhelming response from StarMetro readers to our story on gated and guarded communities in Petaling Jaya entitled “Barricade City” which was published on Monday.
Besides Petaling Jaya, we also received letters from readers staying in Subang Jaya, Kuala Lumpur and even Rawang, where most have come up strongly against the concept.
·Kam from Petaling Jaya:
I live in Jalan SS 24/3 where the house owners have arbitrarily put up oil drums to block off all access roads. There are two schools (Taman Megah & Yuk Chai) nearby. On weekdays the road leading to the area from across would be jammed, holding up traffic going down to the LDP. We already have security guards to look for suspicious characters, so why these barricades?
·Cecilia Choong from SS3, Petaling Jaya:
I do not agree with this growing idea of guarding individual communities because:
1. It restricts and hinders people moving in and out.
2. In the event of emergencies it can be dangerous to lives.
3. The guards are foreign nationals and their legal status is in doubt.
4. The possibility of insider jobs greatly increases.
5. The guards monitor our goings-on and know the times when our homes are vacant.
·A non-participating resident:
I observe that residents are led to believe there is a threat because they hear daily news of snatch thefts, burglaries and robberies happening everywhere in the city.
Would a guarded scheme then guarantee personal safety and protection of property?
Not everyone share the belief that the housing estate is under threat at any time. People must also take means to ensure their safety rather than depending on others to protect them.
Most older housing estates are not designed as guarded communities as there is limited space.
No one knows how much it will cost in the future to sustain such a guarded scheme. If the guarded scheme becomes abandoned, would the resident committee be responsible for dismantling all the boomed gates and related accessories or will they be left an ugly sight everywhere?
·Helen Tan:
This is a sickening and selfish act and causes inconvenience to unsuspecting drivers like me, who want to visit friends. People who are not familiar with the roads would have to go round and round to find an entry or exit. One will have a big headache just to get permission from the foreign guards stationed there. They don’t even understand simple English.
Boom gates were also installed on inner public roads in USJ 11 and 13, forcing motorists to use the outer main roads. This is a selfish and senseless approach!
We, the road tax payers and law abiders would like to demand immediate banning of such boom gates and barriers.
·Safety Conscious from Taman Megah:
Individuals or groups of people whether representing some association have NO RIGHT to barricade public roads without approval. Residents used to have many access roads (mind you, these are public roads, not private roads!) but are now completely barricaded with only one access road.
·A Gill:
The government should never legalise these acts (whether in Selangor, in KL or elsewhere) in any form whatsoever and politicians should never lend support to these gated streets but should instead play their role in helping the public in addressing their security needs with the government, the police and local authorities.
Allowing these gated streets would be “opening the floodgates” to allowing the public take the law into their own hands.
Having these private security guards would only encourage the police to “step back” from their primary responsibility of looking after public security.
·Erik Fearn:
If you want private roads, move to a private housing development. Otherwise, respect the right of the rakyat to use the public roads we pay for with our taxes.
If neighbourhood crime is the problem, barricading thousands of public roads throughout the Klang Valley is not the answer.
I wonder if the irony escapes most residents’ committees that by illegally blocking public roads to - somehow - stop law-breakers, they themselves become law-breakers!
·Sia:
The MBPJ should put their foot down and demolish all these “blockades” and FINE the relevant parties.
I am a resident of Bandar Utama and have gotten into many arguments with the security guards who have in the past denied my entry to the roads leading back to my home.
I have even been harrassed by the police for trying to force my way through to get back home, and the policeman tried to put the blame on me for trying to cause a commotion.
It is NOT their right to build illegal barricades and guard houses on public roads as the public roads not only belong to those who want it to be built but also those who do not want to. This is sort of like a VETO where even if one person do not want it to be built, it should not.
·Long time PJ resident from SS3:
Clear guidelines for gated and guarded communities should be given by local authorities and made available to the public.
·Not So Happy from Petaling Jaya:
Perhaps one day the Petaling Jaya map should include the locations of boom gates and oil barrels are located.
For the safety of my children who come back late at night, I joined the security scheme in SS26 but I do not agree to place permanent barrels across the roads.
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Gated Housing Is Losing Its Appeal & Harder To Sell
As long as any potential buyers or those who are looking to rent cannot get access to the Gated Community housing areas, you can forget about selling /or renting out your property there. As simple as that. Nobody likes hassles when trying to enter and view these properties.
If they can't get access to those "enclosed" (enclave) residences, your chances of selling /renting out the houses there will be close to zero. What people can't view and find out more about, people can't be interested in.
Property developers and agents, please take note. The popularity of Gated Community Schemes have been on the downtrend for quite sometime now. Times have changed.
Nowadays the discerning house-buyers and investors are getting smarter as they prefer not to commit to Strata-titled GnG properties with long-term maintenance fees. They are not purchasing such properties anymore …unless they are very rich with lots of valuables and cash to be stashed around the house.
The average house-buyers nowadays prefer not to commit to GC schemes as they are costly in the long term. This is an expense you would have to commit to as long as you are living there. At around RM500 a month, one would have to fork out about RM6,000 each year and if you were to multiply that by 20 years, that would add up to RM120,000 assuming the rates did not increase during the entire period.
There are more and more people selling off their houses in their current G&G residences and moving out to non-gated housing scheme’s new housing developments.
There have been numerous stories of retirees and old folks moving out of gated housing residences thus cutting down on household expenses to help their children in owning a home for themselves. There are also other similar stories with slightly different intentions though.
With the rising cost of living and poor economic outlook, people are switching to more affordable lifestyle and monthly household expenses in general.
At the same time, Gated Communities do not tend to have higher resale values in the market when compared to similar housing. In some cases, they even had a slight price disadvantage. Gated communities do not have higher levels of community or being “close-knit” (Low, 2001).
And lastly, Gated Communities overall do not lower crime rates compared to similar communities without gates (Blakely and Snyder, 1997).
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