Sustainable Planning: Specifying Stakeholders’ Preferences in Redevelopment Decisions for Conservation Area in Kuala Lumpur

The characteristic of multi-cultural society in Malaysia is ingrained within the built heritage of its early townships: the traditional shophouse. Its architectural details are a rich mixture of Chinese, Indian, European and Malay cultures. The recent vintage of this built heritage poses a threat to their existence. Rapid development pace and escalating market value increasingly replaces these buildings with newer and higher density structures. The current guidelines on redevelopment for conservation
areas have been heavily biased on façade conservation, regardless of other viewpoints. The rigidity of the guidelines, or lack of it as perceived by others, has resulted in conflicts and inconsistent redevelopment outcomes. The aim of this paper is to provide an objective evaluation for redevelopment decisions in conservation area. The subjective elements of multiple stakeholders’
conflict and redevelopment decision making are explored using Multiple Criteria Analysis, or MCA technique. Using a relatively common MCA technique, the Analytical Hierarchy Process, or AHP, stakeholders’ preferences on a set of criteria for redevelopment decision are derived and
compared. This study contributes to discovering the potential of MCA evaluation to increase transparency in redevelopment decision making process.