GEORGE TOWN: The updated George Town World Heritage Site Special Area Plan (SAP), to replace the existing SAP gazetted in 2016, has been completed and is ready to be presented to the state for approval.
State Housing and Local Government Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said due to the rapid land use in George Town in recent years, the state government decided that the SAP needed to be reviewed to ensure that any development would not affect the heritage zone's outstanding universal value (OUV).
"Work on the replacement SAP started back in 2020, where 24 meetings were held to get input from relevant agencies to prepare guidelines for the preservation of heritage.
"Today, the SAP special committee met and approved in principle the replacement SAP. It will be brought to the State Planning Committee (SPC) for consideration and approval.
"The SPC will then decide on a date to present the SAP for feedback to the public before it can be finalised and gazetted," he said today.
Jagdeep said the publicity process was subjected to provisions of the law.
"This is to enable all views, inputs and suggestions by the people of Penang to be taken into account, which has always been the policy of the state government.
"We hope the publicity process and public participation will be held by this year and the SAP documents can be gazetted next year," he added.
George Town will be celebrating the 14th anniversary of being named an Unesco World Heritage Site, along with Melaka, on Thursday.
The SAP comes in two volumes, the first being the management of the Unesco World Heritage Site and the second governs land use and development within the heritage site.
The SAP is reviewed every five years. It was last gazetted in 2016 and was due for review in 2021.