Review on the Significance of Local Plan for Coastal Reclamation Development: The Case of Malacca, Malaysia

Abstract

A Development Plan acts as a planning and controlling instrument that helps to guide in decision making of current and future development. Therefore, in the Malaysian Town and Country Planning Act 1976 (Act 172), the provision of development plan from each level of the planning administration is stated in the Act under Section 6B till Section 16B. In examining the significance of one of the many development plans in Malaysia, i.e. the local plan, this paper therefore, focuses on the provision of a local plan by the Local Planning Authority (LPA) of the said area. This paper, thus, aims to evaluate the Central Malacca Local Plan since Malacca is currently experiencing rapid growth in development along the coastal area. The primary data was obtained from interviews with the related planning authorities via face-to-face method. While, secondary data was gathered from related legal documents, policies and guidelines, as well as the existing development plan for the purpose of an in-depth data. Findings revealed incapability of the existing local plan to assist the development control in deciding the planning permission for reclaimed area. The existing local plan shows no zoning for coastal reclamation area because of the rapid growing development and time consuming procedure to amend the local plan according to the Act 172. In addition, the Act 172 and the process in amending the local plan should be more flexible and able to address the current issue efficiently. Finally, the paper concludes with a suggestion for further exploration in order to achieve an operative development process and functioning practice of the local plan.