SPH’s Submission to TPB to Review Central Plans
The Society for Protection of the Harbour (SPH) submitted to the Town Planning Board (TPB) today that the TPB should use an existing administrative procedure to request the Executive Council to refer the Central (Extension) Outline Zoning Plan (CEOZP) back to the TPB for consideration as the public interest is best served by such a review.
Excessive Land for Commercial Development
The SPH believes that as a consequence of the Court of Final Appeal judgment on the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance handed down on 9 January 2004, the scale of Central Reclamation can and should be reduced by about 5 ha. Furthermore, the use to which new and existing land in Central is to be used post-reclamation under the CEOZP will alter the face of Central forever for the worse, as prime areas will be put for massive commercial and retail complexes even though the Chief Executive said publicly on 17 October 2003 that there would be no commercial buildings on the reclamation [4.4.2].
According to the CEOZP, there will be SIX development zones slated to provide 1,422,000 sq.m. (15.3 million sq. ft.) of commercial and office space, a large portion of which will come from new reclamation [Section 4.4].
“The public thinks that the reclaimed areas will be used for parks and a promenade when in fact most of it will be used by the government for land sales to develop offices and shopping malls with little relationship to the people’s enjoyment of the Harbour. Indeed, the entire face of Central from Statute Square to beyond City Hall will be dominated by what the government calls a Groundscraper, which is really a skyscraper laid horizontally”, said Christine Loh, the SPH’s chairperson.
Proper Land Use
Instead, the SPH believes that the land created from reclamation should be used to create a signature public space as a legacy for Hong Kong as a whole. The SPH emphasized to the TPB in its submission that: “A scarce public resource, the water, has been depleted and in its place a lower order public resource, land, has been created. The public should therefore have the absolute right to the proper use of that land” [3.4.2].
Excessive Roads
The Government claims that Central Reclamation III is necessary in order to build the Central Wanchai By-pass (CWB) to relieve traffic. The SPH’s traffic study accompanying its TPB submission notes that the CEOZP includes massive surface roads beyond provision for the CWB. Having assessed the surface roads (Road P2 network), SPH’s traffic consultants recommended that these roads can be downsized from a dual-3 through primary distributor into a much shorter dual-2 local access road which is reconfigured to maintain accessibility and capacity.
“We found that the Government’s existing road plans had in fact not taken into account new traffic reduction estimates. Road designs have also not been reconfigured to ensure that if the CWB is built that it will serve its design purpose to provide easy access for traffic from the West to go East. As it stands, much traffic will in fact use P2, leaving the CWB under-used and therefore public resources wasted,” said Winston Chu, adviser to the SPH.
Waterfront Park
The SPH proposes that the size of the reclamation can be reduced and for the reclaimed areas to be used to create a large and lush park that will become a defining, signature space for public enjoyment. The proposals from the SPH will result in an extra 8 ha of public park, or more than 15 football pitches.
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Mr Angus Ho at 3101-8191, thank you.