The Naklua Bay Conservation Group is calling on Pattaya City Hall to cancel construction of the Old Naklua Market Community office building, calling it detrimental to the environment.
Pannee Limcharoen, director of the Pattaya City Social Development Department, met Dec. 25 with the conservation group and residents of the Old Naklua Market Community to discuss plans to build an administrative office on land currently part of Lan Po Public Park.
An artist’s rendering of a proposed building residents are protesting in Naklua.
The meeting was called after the activists wrote a letter to the Chonburi provincial government, complaining that Naklua already has too few green areas and that building an office building in the part would erode that even further.
The group noted that the city and community groups have been trying to restore the Nok Yang Canal area near the park, as it is the last mangrove forest in Pattaya and it needs to be conserved for later generations.
The market community already had received permission to construction an office building near the Chao Por Seenil shrine, but the NBCG claims doing so will affect the quality of life for youths and residents in the area as the building will take away what little green area there is for them to relax and exercise, and deprive them the right to access the public park.
According to building plans, a children’s playground area will be shrunk and squeezed into an area near the building. Moreover, the activists said, grassy areas will be removed, leaving Naklua with even less open space.
The meeting failed to find any solution to the dispute. No suitable alternate location to build building could be decided upon and all parties agreed additional meetings will be necessary.
