Fanling housing plan gets 'green light'

James Lee

The Environmental Protection Department yesterday signed off on a controversial public housing development plan on the Fanling Golf Course.

The department said the approval will depend on whether project proponent Civil Engineering and Development Department will revise its layout plan to preserve about 0.4 hectares of woodland in the northernmost part of the site.

Director of Environmental Protection Samuel Chui Ho-kwong conditionally approved the environmental impact assessment report on the golf course.

The development, expected to help ease the housing woes by providing an estimated 12,000 flats for 33,600 residents, will have to be approved by the Town Planning Board and the Legislative Council.

The Hong Kong Golf Club said it regrets the EPD's decision, adding that it was not in line with the administration's climate goals, calling the move "huge regression."

"This decision has trampled on the heritage of Hong Kong and the history and culture of the indigenous residents of the North District, and destroyed the harmony between man and nature," the club said.

The area is part of a larger 32-hectare plot on the golf course slated to be resumed by the government this September. According to the supplementary environmental impact report, the 0.4-hectare woodland consists of 186 trees with "low-to-medium" ecological value.

The report said the "removal of the woodland in concern would unlikely cause adverse ecological impact" given that almost 70 trees would be compensated elsewhere on the course, and 19 transplanted with the seedlings. Chui nonetheless told the CEDD to revise the housing layout to preserve 0.4 hectares of woodland and minimize the impact on tree preservation "as far as practicable."

A revised visual layout would review building heights to minimize the visual impact and adopt a "stepped height profile" with taller buildings in the north and shorter ones in the south.

That came a week after the EPD's advisory council endorsed the government's development plan, a move that prompted pushback from the Hong Kong Golf Club.

Meanwhile, the Housing Authority announced the average waiting time for a public rental unit continues to fall, from 5.5 years to 5.3.

The authority's latest quarterly statistics showed a slight decrease in waiting times that it attributed mainly "to the availability of a substantial number of flats for allocation in the past few quarters."

The average waiting time last March reached a record high of 6.1 years before steadily declining, while the average waiting time for elderly applicants remained unchanged at 3.9 years.

As of end of March, there were about 133,200 general applications for public rental housing, and about 97,100 single applications under the Quota and Points System.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu ramped up housing efforts with "light public housing" - temporary flats constructed to house families waiting more than three years.

cjames.lee@singtaonewscorp.com