The recently announced final plan of the North East New Territories New Development Areas (NDAs) - the Fanling/Sheung Shui/Kwu Tung New Town - is one of the important sources of land and housing supply in the medium term. During the Stage 3 Public Engagement last year, we received over 10 000 written submissions. The new town plan has addressed these views, and substantial changes have been made to the plan after taking into account the findings of detailed technical assessments covering the environmental impacts and infrastructure aspects, etc. We seek to strike a balance among the needs of different stakeholders and provide reasonable and appropriate assistance to those affected, premised on the overall public interest. We will continue to explain the plan to the stakeholders, and also contact the affected residents and farmers to explain the plan and various compensation and rehousing arrangements in detail. We hope that the public will support taking forward this new town plan.
Given the limited space here, I would like to mainly talk about the details of the new town plan and its overall planning and design as well as the implementation approach first. I will cover other aspects of concern to the public, such as conservation, compensation arrangements and assistance to farmers, later.
Revisions to the development plan:
(A) To first develop two NDAs in Kwu Tung North and Fanling North, and to:
(1) increase the development intensity and housing supply: the plot ratio near the future centres of the new town will increase to 6 (similar to that of Whampoa Garden) while the plot ratio of the low- or medium-density sites will be increased to 3.5. The number of housing units to be provided will increase to 60 700 (an increase of 28 per cent), including 36 600 subsidised housing units (an increase of 58 per cent) and 24 100 private housing units, to accommodate 174 900 people (an increase of 31 per cent);
(2) increase the proportion of subsidised housing units from 49 per cent to 60 per cent;
(3) increase the proportion of subsidised housing land from 31 per cent to 47 per cent;
(4) apply the “Hong Kong Property for Hong Kong People” measure subject to the prevailing property market situation and other relevant considerations; and
(5) follow a flat completion schedule from 2022-23 onwards, with the first batch of flats mainly comprising subsidised housing.
(B) Owing to the absence of a railway link and other supporting infrastructure, the Ping Che/Ta Kwu Ling NDA was originally planned for lower-density residential and special industry developments. Since the further development potential in New Territories North will be explored, as announced in the 2013 Policy Address, the Government will re-plan Ping Che/Ta Kwu Ling taking into account the opportunities arising from the possible new railway infrastructure, and will consult the public again.
Overall planning and design:
(1) Kwu Tung North
Interesting and undulating townscape: to develop high-density residential flats in the areas around the new railway station of the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line to be provided at the town centre of Kwu Tung North, and the development intensity and building height will be gradually stepped down towards the periphery to provide an interesting and undulating townscape. Eighty per cent of the population will be living near the new railway station within a 500-metre walking distance.
View corridors and breezeways: there will be wide view corridors and breezeways in north-south and east-west directions within the NDA. One will be able to see the natural landscape of Fung Kong Shan and Long Valley when looking northwards and eastwards respectively.
Greening and open spaces: a town park of about 12 hectares (ha) stretching from west to east across the town centre will serve as the major green and open space spine of the NDA.
Riverside promenade: areas along the eastern bank of the Shek Sheung River and the western bank of the Sheung Yue River will be developed into a continuous riverside promenade for the enjoyment of the residents and visitors.
Community facilities and traditional villages: adequate sites will be reserved for building community facilities/recreational facilities/hospitals/schools, etc. Two villages, i.e. Yin Kong Village and Ho Sheung Heung Village, and the natural landscape of fung shui woodland and fung shui hills will be retained.
(2) Fanling North
Riverside layout: two public transport interchanges will be provided at the eastern and western parts of the strip of land along the riverside of the Ng Tung River, and high-density residential and commercial developments will be provided mainly within 500 metres of the interchanges.
Riverside promenade: main trunk roads will be located at the peripheries of the town centre. Open spaces/cycle tracks/pedestrian ways will be built inside the town to maintain good air quality. A 4-kilometre riverside promenade will be provided along the Ng Tung River as open space.
Vibrant corridors: there will also be a number of green spines in north-south and east-west directions, and retail/commercial shops will be provided to create more vibrant pedestrian corridors.
The Central Park: this major recreational area together with the social service and recreational facilities in the vicinity will form the civic core of the NDA.
Implementation approach:
After taking into account different views, we decided to draw on the successful new town development experience of our predecessors and propose the enhanced Conventional New Town Approach. The Government will take the lead in implementation, and resume private land for development according to the planned uses in order to expedite the development programme of the whole project.
In fact, in the development of many new towns in the past, private landowners were allowed to carry out individual private developments by way of lease modification/in-situ land exchange, which involved applications for changing the use of agricultural land to residential or commercial sites. Union Plaza and Noble Hill in Fanling/Sheung Shui are such examples. Furthermore, there have also been cases of private developments involving such lease modification/in-situ land exchange in the new towns of Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and Tseung Kwan O.
Due to the importance of the implementation programme of this plan, the Government will impose more stringent requirements in processing applications for modification of lease (including in-situ land exchange). Private landowners will have to fulfil four criteria in order to apply for private development, namely: (1) the site must be lying within an area planned for private development; (2) a set of specific guidelines and conditions must be met, including the site having not less than 4 000 square metres in area and being under consolidated ownership; (3) to ensure timely provision of housing and other facilities, applications must be completed within the time limit set by the Government, otherwise the land will be resumed for development; and (4) the landowner(s) as the applicant should treat the tenants/occupants fairly, including offering monetary compensation comparable to that offered by the Government. Moreover, the landowner(s) will have to pay the full land premium.
If a landowner has a site smaller than that required for application, the landowner may make a joint application with the landowner(s) of adjoining sites to the Government, provided that the site is a whole piece of land with a reasonably regular shape conducive to better layout. The Government will not help the landowners to resume other private land for their development.
The total developable area of the new town extension is 333 ha, including 162 ha of private land. The Government will resume 114 ha of the private land for subsidised housing and infrastructure development, including community facilities/roads and bridges/hospitals/schools. In other words, we will resume over 70 per cent of private land. We do not have information on how many sites can meet the specified criteria for applying for lease modification, and the identity of the land owners is not a factor for consideration in land resumption.
7 July, 2013
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