Slice of green belt sites 'can ease housing woes'

Optimal use of green belt sites should be made by the government as 10 percent of such land can produce 1.2 million public housing units, developer Sun Hung Kai Properties has suggested.

It was among the six suggestions made by the developer on easing the land and housing problem.

The property giant said the government should release a slice of such sites amid red tape that is affecting the land and housing supply.

It proposed the government make good use of the green belt's potential and review green belt areas, especially those owned by the government.

"Some of those green belt areas can be repurposed to build subsidized housing including Starter Homes to help middle-class families purchase property," it proposed.

It said releasing 10 percent of the green belt area is about 1,600 hectares of land.

Given the development density in recent new development areas, where 750 flats can be built per hectare, 1,600 hectares of land would mean 1.2 million public housing units, SHKP said.

"If the government releases 25 percent, or 4,000 hectares, of the green belt area, it means increasing the area for residential use in Hong Kong by 50 percent," it added.

The developer also said the government has not reviewed wetland conservation policies for over 20 years, adding "back then it simply marked all land 500 meters from the wetland conservation areas as wetland buffer areas."

It added: "The planning was very arbitrary, while the boundary for the wetland buffer areas in the Town Planning Board Guidelines and Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance are different, which leads to much of the land being frozen."

SHKP said many fish ponds in the wetland conservation area and wetland buffer area are infested with sewage, weeds and even invasive plants, making people question their ecological value.

Many ponds were even filled with concrete and turned to warehouses, further worsening the environment, it said.

Stephen Wong Yuen-shan, deputy executive director of Our Hong Kong Foundation, said the last research on wetland was conducted in 1997 and it is time to review that.

"Apart from considering the ecological value of the wetlands, [the government] also needs to consider the social demands," Wong said.

"Conservation is not only about keeping the land, but also centralizing the resource to improve the quality of conservation at places in need."

But Liber Research Community member Chan Kim-ching has reservations about developing the wetland buffer area as the cost would be higher than developing brownfield sites.

It would be hard for the government to win people's support for that plan, Chan said.

Chau Kwong-wing, chair professor of real estate and construction at the University of Hong Kong, proposed the government use the Land Resumption Ordinance appropriately. Chau added: "If the policy address can release land in the New Territories, I expect land supply to be available."

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com