Section 2

any increasing of the height or floor area of a building;

the roofing or re-roofing of a building or part thereof;

any addition to or alteration of a building that affects or is likely to affect its drainage or sanitary arrangements or its soundness;

any addition to or alteration of a building, whether done before or after completion of the building, that departs in any manner from any plan or specification in respect of the building approved at any time by any authority empowered under any written law to approve the plan or specification;

any addition to or alteration of a building that materially affects or is likely to materially affect the building in any manner; and

any other operation normally undertaken by a person carrying on the business of building construction;

“Committee” means the State Planning Committee established under section 4;

“Council” means the National Physical Planning Council established under section 2A;

12 Laws of Malaysia ACT 172

“density” means the intensity of use of land reckoned or expressed in terms of the number of persons, dwelling units, or habitable rooms, or any combination of those factors, per unit area of land; and for the purpose of this definition, “habitable room” does not include a kitchen, storeroom, utility room, lavatory, bathroom, or garage;

“development” means the carrying out of any building, engineering, mining, industrial, or other similar operation in, on, over, or under land, the making of any material change in the use of any land or building or any part thereof, or the subdivision or amalgamation of lands; and

“develop” shall be construed accordingly;

“development area” means a development area declared under subsection 38(1);

“development charge” means the development charge referred to in section 32;

“development plan”, in relation to an area, means—

the local plan for the area; or

if there is no local plan for the area, the structure plan for the area, and, in relation to any land or building, means the development plan, as so defined, for the area in which the land or building is situated;

“development proposal report” means the report required to be submitted by an applicant for planning permission under subsection 21A(1);

“Director General of Town and Country Planning” means the

Director General of Town and Country Planning whose functions are set out primarily in section 2B;

“earthworks” includes any act of excavation, levelling, filling with any material, or felling of trees on any land, or any act of dealing with or disturbing any land;

Town and Country Planning 13

“engineering operation” includes the formation or levelling of land, the formation or laying out of means of access to a road, and the laying out of cables, mains, or means of water supply or drainage;

“felling a tree” includes cutting down, topping, lopping, uprooting, damaging or destroying a tree;

“floor area” means the total area of floor space within a building, as measured between the external sides of walls or, in the case of party walls, between the centres of such walls;

“land” includes—

the surface, and all substances forming the surface, of the earth;

all substances below the surface of the earth;

all vegetation and other natural products, whether or not requiring periodical application of labour to their production, and whether on or below the surface of the earth;

all things, whether on or below the surface of the earth, that are attached to the earth or permanently fastened to any thing attached to the earth;

land covered by water; and

any estate or interest in, or right over, land;

“local authority” means any city council, municipal council, municipality, district council, town council, town board, local council, rural board, or other similar authority established by or under any written law;

“local plan”, in relation to an area, means the local plan for the area, and any alteration of the plan, for the time being having effect in the area by virtue of subsection 15(1); and, in relation to any land or building, means the local plan, as so defined, for the area in which the

14 Laws of Malaysia ACT 172

land or building is situated; and “draft local plan” shall be construed as the context requires;

“local planning authority”, in relation to an area, shall be construed as provided in section 5 and, in relation to any land or building, means the local planning authority, as so construed, for the area in which the land or building is situated;

“Minister” means the Minister responsible for town and country planning;

“national physical plan” means the physical plan covering Peninsular

Malaysia prepared and approved under section 6B;

“occupier”, in relation to any land or building, includes—

a tenant of the land or building;

an owner of the land or building occupying or otherwise using the land or building;

a person in actual occupation of the land or building or having the charge, management, or control thereof, whether on his own account or as an agent of another person, but does not include a lodger;

“open space” means any land whether enclosed or not which is laid out or reserved for laying out wholly or partly as a public garden, park, sports and recreation ground, pleasure ground, walk or as a public place;

“owner”, in relation to any land or building, means—

the registered proprietor of the land;

if, in the opinion of the local planning authority, the registered proprietor of the land cannot be traced, his agent or trustee;

Town and Country Planning 15

if the registered proprietor of the land is dead, his legal personal representative;

if none of the persons mentioned in paragraphs (a), (b), and

exists, the person who for the time being is receiving the rent of the land or building, whether on his own account or as an agent or trustee of another person or as a receiver, or who would be receiving the rent if the land or building were let;

“plan” includes reports, drawings, maps and models;

“planning permission” means permission granted, with or without condition, to carry out development;

“plinth area” means the proportion to be covered by building of the area of any lot;

“plot ratio” means the ratio of the total floor area of a building to the area of the building plot as measured between the survey boundary lines or, if there are no survey boundary lines, between the provisional boundary lines;

“prescribe” means prescribe by rules;

“purchase notice” means a purchase notice referred to in section 37;

“regional planning committee”, in relation to an area, means the regional planning committee established for that area under section 6A;

“requisition notice” means a requisition notice referred to in section 30;

“road” means any public or private road, and includes any street, square, court, alley, lane, bridge, footway, track, bridle-path, passage, or highway, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public have a right of way;

“rules” means rules made under this Act;

“special area” means the area designated under section 16B;

16 Laws of Malaysia ACT 172

“State Director”, in relation to a State, means the Director of Town and Country Planning Department of that State;

“structure plan”, in relation to an area, means the structure plan for the area, and any alteration of the plan, having effect in the area by virtue of subsection 10(6); and, in relation to any land or building, means the structure plan, as so defined, for the area in which the land or building is situated; and “draft structure plan” shall be construed as the context requires;

“tree preservation order” means a tree preservation order made under section 35A;

“use”, in relation to any land, means any use of the land other than merely for the keeping or storage of materials and equipment intended to be employed in the construction or erection of a building on the land, or as a site for temporary buildings for the accommodation of workers involved in the construction or erection of the building;

“utilities” includes roads, water and electricity supplies, street lighting, sewerage, drainage, public works, and other similar public services and conveniences.

For the avoidance of doubt in determining, for the purposes of this Act, what constitutes a material change in the use of land, it is declared that—

For the avoidance of doubt in determining, for the purposes of this Act, what constitutes a material change in the use of a building, it is declared that—