The Development Bureau said technical assessments as well as public consultations will be conducted over the proposal of a pilot scheme to relax planning restrictions in the rural villages of Yin Kong and Ho Sheung Heung villages, in a bid to boost rural tourism, while the Town Planning Board will still act as a gatekeeper for the scheme.
This came after the Bureau was mulling allowing village houses to be fully or partially converted into restaurants, retail shops, or guesthouses without undergoing individual planning applications.
Linda So Wai-sze, director of the Northern Metropolis Co-ordination Office, said on a radio program on Wednesday that the Town Planning Board will oversee the pilot scheme, and the government's role is to assist the planning amendment applications with technical assessments such as traffic and environmental impacts, as well as public consultations before the Town Planning Board to make the final decision.
She explained that Yin Kong and Ho Sheung Heung were selected for the trial due to their proximity to the Kwu Tung North New Development Area and the Long Valley Nature Park. She added that the local rural committee also agreed that the locations are highly suitable for catering and accommodation facilities.
Speaking on the same program, Andrew Lam Siu-lo, chairman of the Legislative Council Panel on Development, hoped that other single-storey houses would not be excluded from the scheme.
He added that the plan involves complex details such as sewage arrangements, suggesting that the issues should be sorted out on a project-by-project basis.
