Dehiwela residents get stay order against developer

Sixteen residents of Atapattu Road, Dehiwala obtained a stay order against a high rise developer last month for breaching Urban Development Authority (UDA) rules.

On September 21, the Court of Appeal granted interim relief to the 16 petitioners against Greenfield Development, court documents show.

The residents went to court against this builder alleging a violation of planning and building regulations of the UDA in terms of the maximum number of floors of the development at Atapattu Road.

This road doesn’t have 6 metres’ width that’s needed to construct a high rise of a ground plus five floors. It stands at 5.10 metres but Greenfield was granted approval by the Dehiwala Mount Lavinia Municipal Council (DMMC) to build six floors including the ground floor car park.

It’s learnt that the DMMC has moved another floor with three apartments as an extension to originally approved building permit.

Residents say that there is a serious traffic problem during peak hours, because the road is used by outside motorists as a by-pass road from Hospital road to Karagampitiya. The pressure in the two inch line laid more than 25 years back by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board is hardly enough to satisfy the needs of existing residents. The power supply is also not reliable where frequent break-downs are experienced by the residents due to over loading. If another 18 apartments will be added in a 20 perch land, the situation in Atapattu Road will get worse, a resident told the Business Times.

Section 13 of UDA Regulations provides for submission of detailed structural plans together with design calculations, results of soil tests, soil bearing capacity, type of foundations, type of piles, method of pile drilling and machinery to be used for piling work. However, it is learnt that the building permit was approved without any of these information.

Almost all the residents of road signed a letter objecting to the proposed construction work and handed over this to the DMMC with no positive results from the authorities, the resident of Atapattu Road said. (DEC)