The Hong Kong Institute of Planners’ (HKIP) Highlight Suggestions on the 2021 Policy Address

The Hong Kong Institute of Planners’ (HKIP) Highlight Suggestions

 on the 2021 Policy Address

 

The Hong Kong Institute of Planners has the following major suggestions for the upcoming Chief Executive, HKSAR, ‘s Policy Address 2021.  These suggestions are considered of high priority and recommended to be taken up by HKSAR Government immediately.

 

Highlight 1: Land Supply - Government’s Accountability and Speeding Up Land Production and Infrastructure Development

  •  HKIP advocates the establishment of a Land Supply Commission to accelerate and monitor the land supply progress and make known to the public the progress and milestones of land production on a regular basis.

  • Government’s multipronged approach in land supply including rezoning a relatively small amount of “Green Belt” zones which are ecologically less sensitive and usually served by proper infrastructures in the proximity, development of brownfield clusters and abandoned farmland, undertaking environmentally acceptable reclamation, etc., are considered reasonable.  There is no evidence that the resulted land supply would not be insufficient to meet the demand for land in a sensible and sustainable manner.  As such, developing the fringe of the Country Parks is NOT necessary, and should only be taken as a last resort, as it would result in the unnecessary sacrifice of valuable natural resources and time, given their remoteness, lushness and ecological and recreational value.

  • Government should stipulate minimum flat sizes in land sales and lease modifications with a view to ensuring a certain level of housing quality and to counter the undesirable trend of ‘nano flat’ production in the market.  Market players including the Urban Renewal Authority (minimum flat size of 300 sq.ft saleable area) and MTR Corporation Limited (minimum flat size of 260 sq.ft saleable area) have such stipulations already in their development tenders.

  • The government should press on the implementation of the New Development Areas (NDAs) in FULL SPEED, especially the Fanling North, Kwu Tung North, Hung Shui Kiu, Yuen Long South NDAs to address the acute shortfall for land and housing units.  The slow infrastructure development, in particular the new railway and highways, impose severe constraints on urban development.  As such, HKIP welcomes the Government’s recent decision to request MTRCL to proceed with the detailed study for the Northern Link (NOL), which will unlock the development potential of the areas served by NOL including San Tin/Lok Ma Chau, Ngau Tam Mei, Au Tau.  Going further, the Government should draw up speedily solutions to the overcrowding on East Rail and West Rail and congestions on Tolo Highway, Tuen Mun Highway and Route

Highlight 2: Planning System and Speed of Implementation

  • Hong Kong’s planning system including the planning mechanism of Comprehensive Development Areas and development control procedures, is in general flexible, effective and transparent in delivering the objectives of sustainable development in social, economic and environmental terms as well as good quality of life.  Whilst there is always room for improvement, significant gain in processing time is not expected unless we significantly compromise on comprehensive planning and public engagement.

  • Whilst we could refine the planning system and district-level statutory town plans, the lengthy procedures in actual implementation cannot be ignored.  They include the land administration, land resumption and clearance, funding approval process for infrastructures, etc.  Quoting an example, the OZPs for the NDAs had been approved quite a few years ago, but the bulk of the land in NDAs are only expected to be available several years from now.

 

Highlight 3: Land Use Planning Complementing the National 14th Five-Year Plan and Greater Bay Area Initiative

  • In support of Hong Kong to become an international innovation and technology (I&T) hub, the Government needs to create a supportive tech-ecosystem for the high technology and knowledge-based industries.  There is a clear and strong synergy of Hong Kong and Shenzhen to joint forcse to develop I&T industries.  The North New Territories which covers more than 30 square kilometres of development areas, including Hung Shui Kiu, San Tin/Lok Ma Chau, Kwu Tung North, etc., should be planned and developed taking full account of this perspective. In particular, as many I&T talents are non-local young people, they face great difficulty in finding affordable accommodation in Hong Kong. The Government should consider ways to provide rental flats for talents working in the I&T sector.  Possible approaches include providing flats similar to Innocell in the Science Park or stipulating appropriate requirements of providing a certain proportion of rental housing units in the residential land sale sites near the I&T industries;

  • The Government can step up efforts on cultural and historical preservation to showcase Hong Kong, with the completion of M+ and Palace Museum.  The West Kowloon Cultural District could become a new hub and a new initiative similar to Conserving Central should be launched to repackage Tsim Sha Tsui as a whole to optimize on the opportunity.

 

Highlight 4: Change in Planning Paradigm to Strive for a Healthy Hong Kong

  • Implement people-oriented local area improvement schemes in the main urban areas to create a healthy living and walkable environment for our citizens, particularly the elderly.  Provision of more quality open spaces in the inner urban areas, such as Yau Ma Tei District, is essential.

  • Removal of on-street metered parking spaces for conversion to pedestrian walkways in areas where pedestrian flow is high for improving walkability and soft landscape.

  • Flexible and mixed uses to cater for proper home-office units and co-working spaces.

  • A well-planned network of health-care and quarantine facilities is essential to fight against pandemics. 

  • Update HKPSG to make our city more resilient to climate change and pandemic crisis and conduct local planning review to identify areas for improvements.

  • Prompt study of the public health risk of bathrooms/toilets relying only on mechanical ventilation (黑廁). Such design has become very common in small private and sub-divided flats, posing potential health risks to residents.

 

 

The Hong Kong Institute of Planners
Public Affairs Committee
September 2021

HKIP