Fanling site for flats gets green light

The Town Planning Board has approved a move to designate 9.54 hectares of the Fanling golf course as an undetermined zone for developing public housing after a closed-door meeting yesterday.

This came after the Hong Kong Golf Club filed a judicial review against an environmental impact assessment allowing the government to build public flats, saying the report is "grossly deficient, unscientific and analytically flawed."

The government will take back 32 hectares of the golf course on September 1. The 9.54-hectare area will be used to build flats and the remaining 22 hectares will be reserved for conservation and leisure, the board decided.

The board considered 6,787 representations, and 51 comments and oral statements given by 190 people who attended five public hearings last month.

Most board members agreed to build flats in the area as the site is close to Sheung Shui MTR station and many other public housing estates in North District, the Planning Department said.

The members also believe it is feasible to build public housing there, which is one of the housing supply sources. The board said the golf club could host international golf events on its remaining 140 hectares of land, adding the government is also willing to offer the 32 hectares of land to host competitions.

The golf club yesterday expressed "utmost regret" at the board's decision, adding it would continue to object to the government's plan to develop housing on the site and protect the course's integrity.

In a writ filed to the High Court on Friday, the club said the director of environmental protection, Samuel Chui Ho-kwong, acted beyond his powers as he approved the report without inviting public comment on additional information about the government's plan to build housing.

The club said Chui in August last year requested the Civil Engineering and Development Department to provide additional information, including a detailed layout plan of the proposed housing, additional surveys on birds and moths and a tree compensation plan.

The additional information was provided in April this year and the club wrote to Chui, asking whether the public would be permitted to comment on it.

However, Chui did not respond to the club's request and conditionally approved the assessment report in May.

"The director acted unlawfully by approving the environmental impact assessment report, as supplemented by the additional information, without making provision for public inspection and comment by the advisory council on the environment," it said.

The club also said the report had seriously underestimated the ecological and environmental values of the golf course.

The report had said there were no old and valuable trees at the course. But the club explained that only trees on nonleased government land and tourist attraction spots in village areas are eligible for registration, and at least 25 trees could be regarded as valuable old trees.

There are 107 species of moths of conservation concern at the golf course, including 57 globally threatened species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list. Twelve are found only in Hong Kong.

There are also 15 bat species at the site, of which five are regarded as near-threatened and one vulnerable, the club said. But the government found only one bat species.

"The club's consultants found gross errors in nearly every technical section of the environmental impact assessment report, including the use of flawed and unscientific study methodologies, very large errors in measurement, the use of incomplete and wholly inaccurate data and assessments as to the environmental value and impact that were wholly unsustainable," the club said.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com

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