IN THE article, 'Historic buildings no bar to progress' (ST, Dec 13), Mr Kannan Chandran correctly pointed out that 'heritage buildings should be viewed as assets, not stumbling blocks to progress', citing refurbished colonial villas previously owned by the family of Straits Chinese tycoon Tan Kim Seng as being instrumental to the sale of 121 units within 36 hours of the soft launch of Grand Duchess At St Patrick's.
In reply to a recent letter, Mr Ler Seng Ann, the Urban Redevelopment Authority's director of conservation and development services, acknowledged the 'need to balance that (architectural merit) with economics, changing lifestyles and expectations, needs of building owners and other factors'.
In my view, our conservation success is attributable mainly to the Land Acquisition Act allowing the Government to acquire sites at market values as at Nov 30, 1973, Rent Control Act, 2003 and Decontrolled Premises Act offering landowners opportunities and financial incentives to conserve previously rent-controlled properties.
As correspondent Kalpana Rashiwala pointed out in the article, 'Conservation targets newer buildings' (The Business Times, July 14), architects have described the conservation of prime commercial sites and iconic post-war strata developments like Beverly Mai (the first condo built in 1974) and Futura (second condo built in 1976) as an 'uphill battle'.
Yet, on Dec 8 URA served notice to conserve yet more prime commercial sites like those in Syed Alwi Road, Rowell Road, Desker Road, Lembu Road and Jalan Besar. Millions of dollars of property values will be wiped out upon conservation, with some landowners being unable to proceed with previously approved redevelopment.
With 6,500 buildings already conserved, it may be timely to review our conservation objectives and programmes by looking at the following issues:
Is this level of conservation enough? Land being scarce and expensive, how do we reconcile conservation with loss of redevelopment potential and creation of jobs? Is there a need to conserve more of the same type? Compensation to those deprived of approved redevelopment. In the first phase of our conservation efforts, buildings conserved were often old, dilapidated or even unsafe.
Today's circumstances are different and even if a conservation proposal is justified by experts on specifics, there may be a need to re-examine overall conservation needs and provide fair and equitable compensation to affected landowners.
Robert Teh Kok Hua
