- T.A.L. Concannon, Planning of Petaling Jaya, Town and Country Planning 23,129 (1955a), 56-61 T.G. McGee and
-
- T.A.L. Concannon, A New Town in Malaya: Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, in: Malayan Journal of Tropical Geography 5, (1955b) 39-43
-
- W.D. Taggart, Petaling Jaya: a socio economic survey of a new town in Selangor, Malaysia’, in: Pacific Viewpoint, Monograph no.2
type of New Town:
> scale of autonomy
New-Town-in-Town
Satellite
New Town
Company Town
> client
Private Corporation
Public Corporation
> policy
Capital
Decentralization
Industrialization
Resettlement
Economic
Petaling Jaya is a new town, located about 15 km from the south west of capital Kuala Lumpur and just to the north of the main road and railway line tot port Klang and Port Swettenham. Before the development of the new town the largest part of the site was mainly used for rubber cultivation and mining activities and was inhabited by squatters. The principal goal for the planning of the first new town in Malaysia was the need to resettle these squatters but also the squatters around the Kuala Lumpur area. In 1954 almost half of the Malaysian population was living in squatter areas!
The initial scheme was planned in 1952 (under British rule) by Federal townplanner Thomas Arthur Lawrence Concannon of the Federal Town Planning Department. It was designed for a population of 70.000 on 3000 acres. Petaling Jaya was conceived as a new town based on principles similar to those of the British new towns, with a number of connected neighbourhood units and areas for industry, commerce and government buildings, public recreation as well as schools, housing and other private and community uses. By combining location of work, residence and recreation, it was hoped to develop a more modern and more agreeable mode of urban living.
The new town is divided in different neighbourhoods around two major town centres. Petaling Lama (Old Petaling Jaya) is located in the south of Petaling Jaya and the neighbourhoods around this old town centre were the first developed areas. The New Town Centre lies to the north of the new town and is planned as the more elevated or superior centre than the Petaling Lama one. There are two large industrial zones projected at the north west and the south west of Petaling Jaya. The University of Malaya Campus is located in the north west fringe. The new town is intersected diagonally by a Federal Highway that leads from Kuala Lumpur in the north west to Klang and Port Swettenham in the south east.
source: T.A.L. Concannon, Planning of Petaling Jaya, Town and Country Planning 23,129 (1955a), 56-61 T.G. McGee and
W.D. Taggart, 'Petaling Jaya: a socio economic survey of a new town in Selangor, Malaysia', in: Pacific Viewpoint, Monograph no.2
