THE old Seletar Airbase will be turned into an aerospace hub in nine years, but residents like Mr Harpreet S. Nehal are hoping for a say in how this tranquil sanctuary can greet the future without losing its charm.
Suggestions include building an access for vehicles entering and leaving the future hub separate from the one residents and golfers now use, as well as a more efficient use of existing open spaces and unoccupied buildings.
Driving The Straits Times around Seletar recently, the Singaporean director of law firm Drew & Napier pointed out where he and some 15 fellow residents think a separate entrance would be ideal:
It is near Seletar Dam, on the west side of the airbase and close to Seletar Airport, where new facilities for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul are expected to come up cheek-by-jowl with the existing 30 or so aerospace companies.
A separate access will keep heavy vehicles clear of the 305 black-and-white, colonial rented houses on the east side, an area which could also be used for non-industrial purposes such as the proposed regional aviation training campus.
Mr Nehal, who has lived in Seletar for three years, also identified empty plots of land, abandoned hangars and unoccupied Defence Ministry buildings that could make way for the hub.
Aviation offices could be moved from single-storey buildings to new two- or three-storey ones to maximise space, he suggested.
During the tour, he also pointed out empty bungalows that could become wine bars and alfresco dining places, to create a buzz like that at the popular but hard-to-find Sunset Grill and Pub, where patrons savour buffalo wings as the sun sets over the air strip.
'You can still preserve the character and ambience of this place without turning it into another Tuas,' said Mr Nehal, 40.
The $60 million masterplan of the Economic Development Board and JTC Corporation will be finalised at the end of the year.
What is now known is that the new Seletar Aerospace Park will cover 140ha - the size of more than 100 football fields - and that the authorities will look into retaining the charm, greenery and heritage of the former Royal Air Force base.
Golfers worry about the future of the Seletar Base Golf Club's nine-hole public course, which borders Seletar Airport.
They think it will be a pity to close it down because the trees there are all mature, and playing there is affordable - at between $30 and $40 to play on its greens, and even less for members at $130 or less a year.
Businessman Danny Leow, 50, who visits the course six days a week, hopes some parts of it can stay and be adapted for a smaller course.
For now, the airbase remains a green haven of open fields and narrow streets with quaint names like Hyde Park Gate, Oxford Street and Piccadilly.
It is also home to four flying schools and clubs, the Singapore Armed Forces' School of Logistics and a military camp for combat engineers.
It is also a nature sanctuary. The Nature Society's conservation committee chairman Ho Hua Chew says grey herons are known to nest in the casuarina trees in the military compound.
The only other nesting site for these birds is at the Tanah Merah Golf Course, he said, adding that a count and survey of the bird population ought to be done for Seletar.
Residents also testify to the 'zoo' in their neighbourhood - they have kingfishers, monitor lizards, spitting cobras and paradise tree snakes for company.
This closeness to nature was what Madam Chandra Shanmugam, 37, and her property manager husband Ravi Chandran wanted for their children, aged five and two.
They gave up their four-room HDB flat in Serangoon North to become tenants in their semi-detached house in Seletar two years ago, and pay $1,500 a month in rent.
She said: 'We didn't want the children to be cooped up all day. We wanted the open space for them to roam around and climb trees.'
Residents also revel in the sense of community. Doors are kept open. Home owners put in side gates in their fences so neighbours can walk right through.
Whether all this will come to an end when the residents' leases expire on Dec 31, 2008, remains to be seen. They hope development will be gradual, and that they will not be asked to leave, only to have the land stand empty for years.
Mr Nehal, whose neighbours include Dutch, Germans, Filipinos, Americans, French, Malaysians as well as Singaporeans, said: 'One cannot manufacture bohemia. It exists in Seletar and should be left to thrive.'
chinlian@sph.com.sg
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