“Blind land development” sacrifices the quality of life in the existing community
North Point ventilation corridor WAS preserved
but high-rise buildings will be built soon!

The shortage of Public Open Space in Hong Kong is a planning concern for a long time. However,  open space areas are continuously rezoned for housing purpose by the government in recent years. Instead of maintaining the quality of life in response to the citizens’ demand, the construction of dense residential buildings worsens the problem of urban heat island effect.

From the government’s land-rezoning applications approved by the Town Planning Board in 2015, Green Sense found out that in a total of 58.53 hectares of land were converted to residential land use in 24 projects, including “Green Belt” (32.96 ha), “Open Space” (4.25ha), “Government, Institution or Community facilities sites (GIC)” (21.3 ha). Due to the long developed urban growth in Hong Kong, most of the “Open Space” and “GIC” are located at the essential ventilation corridor of the inner city area. If high-rise buildings are constructed at the corridors, the urban density will increase and the micro-climate will be cramped further.

From the current draft of North Point Outline Zoning Plan (S/H8/25) consulted by the Town Planning Board, the Tin Chiu Playground in North Point is to be rezoned to “Residential (A)” use, in order to provide 240 units, in at most 110 metres high public housing. Nevertheless, the rezoning site, the playground, is the main entrance of the North-easterly wind to the North Point inner city area. Once the high- rise buildings are built, the sea breeze will be blocked and weakened the ventilation of the urban area of North Point. The most ironic is that, in order to keep the ventilation corridor during the former North Point Estate development, the mentioned site was preserved from development by the government of the last term. This obviously shows that the blind land development has made the urban planning a chaos.

In order to beautify the land supply ability of the government, our society has already sacrificed too much public space and natural environment. Disputes over land continue, the defence for land raises in all districts in Hong Kong. Green Sense suggests, there is an urgent need of population control, the pressure for land supply can be relieved. The community has to treat population policy as a tool of alleviating housing problem, managing the number of immigration (including the One-way Permits for mainland people and other immigration applications), in order to slow down the population growth, and more importantly, to prevent such blind land development from bothering Hong Kong continuously.

Develop properly but not blindly
Development in East Lantau should be reduced to preserve the precious peace of Mui Wo and Peng Chau
The issue is not lack of land supply, but flats are affordable
Green Marks for Policy Address: 20 marks (Fail)

There are a crazy number of land exploitation methods in dramatic scale proposed in the Policy Address 2014. Even if there is significant demand for housing in Hong Kong, we believe the need of increase of land reserve should at the same time be balanced with adequate recreational spaces, community facilities, breezeways of the city and the conservation of eco-environment.

Roy Tam, Chief Executive of Green Sense remarks, “The government is trying more and more fiercely to obtain land but with “blind” eyes. Mr. C.Y. Leung is determined to turn Hong Kong into a huge construction site, contrary to his another goal of air quality improvement.” Such Policy Address is to declare war against the environment and the ecological system. We give it 20 marks as regards to its environmental aspect. In other words, it clearly fails.

Mr. C.Y. Leung proposes that, except for the north of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula, which are more densely populated, the maximum domestic plot ratio for all other areas should increase by 20%, which was worrying. There is high density of multi-stories buildings in Hong Kong. There is already too deep and too common an impression of “Concrete Forest” for Hong Kong. Many newly developed areas are designed to have lower density than the Kowloon Pennisula in order to provide a better quality of life and living environment. The proposal contradicts the current town planning principles and is sloppy.

Sai Kung and Lantau Island are gardens of Hong Kong people. Unfortunately, North Lantau has fallen in recent years (as construction of massive infrastructure in progress). Now, the Eastern of it may be developed to “Eastern Lantau Metropolis”. Such policy suggestion is not cost-effective and non-environmentally friendly. If it is to build an artificial island, it will surely cost thousands of billions. Mui Wo and Peng Chau are also famous holiday attractions for Hong Kong people and are quiet places to live in. Therefore, we in principle oppose reclamation and development of the “Eastern Lantau Metropolis” in the eastern waters off Lantau Island and neighbouring areas.

The issue of housing is not the lack of land supply and therefore the resolution is not the increase of the same. The major problem is that flats constructed are simply unaffordable. Such problem cannot be solved by increase of land supply to the developers, as they would hoard the new supply or to develop luxurious flats, as it is what they usually do with the current pieces of land. The price of flats will still be very expensive anyway.

It is regrettable that there is no mention of the capacity of Hong Kong in the Policy Address. If we are to tackle housing problems, not only should we look at the supply of land, but also the population growth.

The Long Beach 4 Blocks not yet Open for Sale
Construction Completed 6 years Ago
Imperial Cullinan Original Land Bought $6,000sq ft Sold at $15,000sq ft
Developers Want Maximised Profits Citizens Want Affordable Homes
Solution: Large Supply of Flats from Home Ownership Scheme

The Long Beach at night. Construction was completed in 2006. However, only four out of eight blocks have been open for sale. Picture shows many flats are dark at night.

In 2007, Green Sense, together with many residents of Tai Kok Tsui, opposed rigorously the construction of walled buildings in the coastal side of West Kowloon. We have even applied for judicial review of the decision of the land sale. 5 years passed, unfortunately, more and more walled buildings have been constructed in West Kowloon. The worst of all, these buildings end up either unsold for ages, or as luxurious flats for Mainlanders and the rich locals.

Roy Tam, President of Green Sense, sighed, ‘In those days, we, together with District Council members of Tai Kok Tsui and residents, tried so hard to prevent the construction of walled buildings. Now, the once controversial land was turned into walled buildings. Sadly, over 1,000 units are not occupied at all and render the construction meaningless to the public.’ He continued and said, ‘It does not necessarily mean much to the general public even if developers are willing to sell the completed flats. In order to maximise their profits, developers target mainly the Mainland purchasers and sell the flats at $15,000 per square feet. How can an ordinary middle class afford such flats?’

The Long Beach, developed by Hang Lung Properties, was completed in 2006. 600 flats out of 1829 flats were sold in 2007. However, only until 2012 was there another sale of 100 units. It is estimated that over 1,000 units have not been open for sale. There has not been a single sale in four of its blocks (Block 1, 2, 7 and 9). Currently, Conditions for Sale and land leases stipulates only the required completion date, but not the date for sale.

Imperial Cullinan, developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties at Hoi Fan Road, provides another example of the current problem of Hong Kong property market. It is located on the land where it was once remarked as ‘the last breezeway of Tai Kok Tsui’, and was the subject of the above mentioned judicial review 5 years ago. The developer acquired the land at $55.6 billion, in other words, $6,066 per sq. ft. However, it is eventually open for sale in 2011 at $15,000 per sq. ft in average. It was the time when the influx of the Mainland property purchasers started to come. The average price per flats of Imperial Cullinan was about $21.4m, with a sales amount exceeding $135 billion.

The extravagant lobbies and clubhouses of Imperial Cullinan. Most of its flats are sold at $15,000 per sq. ft. The average price per flat is around $21.4m.

Roy Tam claims, ‘if developers are allowed to utilise the land freely, the only thing they will do is to maximise profits. It is silly to think that they may serve ‘bread’. What they will serve is only ‘high class cakes’. They concern not the residential needs of the ordinary middle class. The Reach, half hour walking distance from the Yuen Long MTR Station, will soon open for sale and it will be expensive too. The first 100 flats, not only are they priced expensively at $7,200 per sq. ft., but also are “inflated flats”. The building plan of these flats was submitted a bit in advance of the governmental regulation on inflated buildings taken effect on 1st APR 2011.

While we struggle hard to have an affordable housing, developers pursuit only maximised profits. The housing problem faced by our middle class would not be addressed effectively if the government attempts to bring down the price by simply increasing the supply of private developments. Green Sense proposes, in order to effectively cool down the property market and benefit people with real need of housing, the government should increase the supply of flats from Home Ownership Scheme and Private Sector Participation Scheme. Roy Tam also remarked that there would be much uncertainty if large amount of land were sold and developed freely. ‘We do not know how much a flat costs. We also do not know if those flats are in fact sold to Hong Kong residents.’ Roy Tam said.

Information of Imperial Cullinan

Developer: Sun Hung Kai Properties
Price of the Land: $55.6 billion
Contractual Price per Square Feet: $6,066
Date of the Land Sold: JUN 2007
Amount of Flats: 650         Amount of Flats Green Sense studied: 632

Purchasers from the Mainland : Local Purchasers = 55.1% : 44.9%
(Purchases under a company name not included)
Sale Profits (632 Flats): $135.27 billion
Average Price per Square Feet: about $15,000
Average Price per Flat: $21.4 million

Examples: Construction Completed Years Ago
                           But   1) Not Yet Open for Sale    or    2) Some Flats Remain Unsold

$18b for 5 newly developed estates  35% flats bought by Mainland purchasers
Implement restrictions for non-locals  Ensure flats for locals
Estate Agents: road shows in Mainland to attract buyers
Distorted supply of flats
Oppose supply increase by reclamation

New flat salespeople outside Hung Hom Station

It seems that land in Hong Kong is scarce, and we have insufficient land for housing. Some people say that we need reclamation and cavern development. Unfortunately, a large number of our scarce flat units are bought by purchasers from the Mainland, just like how our hospital services are demanded by them. Developers keep constructing large flats and developing luxurious projects. Purchasers from the Mainland keep buying large luxurious flats. As a result, there is no hope in lowering the price of flats. There is no hope to have a home in Hong Kong for locals. Donald Tsang, Henry Tang and CY Leung, how do you respond to this “deep rooted problem”?

There were various estimations about the ratio of flat-purchasers from the Mainland without empirical studies. In order to give a clearer picture for the public, we, Green Sense, has conducted a research in mass scale (the study). We have investigated 5 major development projects, which have been put on sale this year. There are 4116 units in total. They are Festival City (Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited)、Inland Crest (Kerry Properties Limited)、Imperial Cullinan (Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited)、The Hermitage (Sino Group) and Uptown (Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited). We have identified the categories of purchasers and calculated the relevant ratio and contracted price. We concluded that purchasers from the Mainland have already crept deeply and firmly into the first hand private housing market of Hong Kong.

According to the study, 20% to 30% of the concluded sale involves purchasers from the Mainland (sole purchaser or joint purchaser with Hongkongers) (Table 1). The majority of purchasers are Hongkongers, and there is a certain percentage of company purchasers. The nationality of some purchasers cannot be identified. Excluding the categories of company purchasers, foreign purchasers and joint purchasers, the percentage between purchasers from the Mainland and local purchasers is 37.5% and 62.5% respectively (Table 2).

The ratio between purchasers from the Mainland and local purchasers calculated above is adopted in analysing the relative ratio of the company purchasers. Since the majority of sale under the name of a company is in fact concluded by individuals, the ratio above would indicate the amount of purchasers from the Mainland under the name of a company (Table 3). Lastly, the money invested by purchasers from the Mainland is ranged from 21.6% to 51.1% for the 5 new major development projects (Table 4). The difference among the 5 projects may be a result of different marketing strategies.

We have also investigated the money invested by purchasers from the Mainland in the 5 projects. An impressively 18 billion was invested by them. It shows that huge amount of hot money from the Mainland has been flown into Hong Kong and has gradually conquered local residential housing market (Table 4). Comparing the purchasing power of purchasers from the Mainland and local purchasers, it is evidenced that the purchasing power of Mainlanders is higher than the locals in all 5 projects (Table 5).

In addition, we have arranged “undercover” as potential buyers to the newly open Festival City Phase III and recorded conversation with several estate agents. It is proved that developers now adopted the marketing strategies targeting Mainlanders instead of the locals. Strategies include road shows in China and arranging shuttle bus travelling between the Mainland and show flats in Hong Kong. The following is part of the conversation:

“…which means Hongkongers 60%, Mainlanders 40%…”
“Yesterday, there were so many potential buyers from the Mainland. They have two-way exit permits in order to come here and queue for Hong Kong flats.”
“Many purchasers from the Mainland purchase flats here. Not necessary for home. Maybe for rental. Only one or two for personal residence.”
“There are many Mainlanders near East Rail Line. It takes only half an hour to travel to Shenzhen or Lok Ma Chau.”

According to statements from the estate agents, Mainlanders are clear marketing targets of developers. It may be because the purchasing power of Mainlanders is stronger than that of the locals. Green Sense has long criticized that, many residential buildings are now designed to luxurious 3-room large units, in order to cater the taste of Mainlanders. Many of the locals are prevented from a purchase because of the high price. Moreover, the names of the projects are deliberately designed to give an impression of superiority and magnificence, even though they are regarded as garish, hardly comfortably accepted by many Hongkongers.

Roy Tam, President of Green Sense, said, “How can Hong Kong possibly satisfy all the hot money from the Mainland, as Hong Kong having so little land? Locals are now hard to purchase a flat at a reasonable price in first hand housing market. And it is the reason why there are so many complaints from the public.” In Singapore, there is additional 10% stamp duty for non-locals flat purchasers, and as a result restricting the flow of hot money from coming. The Hong Kong government should take action now to tackle the problem of our residential housing market being conquered by purchasers from the Mainland.

We have the following suggestions:

1. As a major shareholder of MTR, the government should direct the supply of the properties above railways. Many of the property supply of the coming few years locate along the railway. It is appropriate for the government to have granted a land lot in Tsuen Wan West with flats with limited floor areas (i.e. the minimum number of flats as well as the smallest and largest floor areas of flats being specified in the conditions of sale). Such policy should be further implemented in the land lot in Tai Wai Station and the remaining phases of LOHAS Park. The said two developments can in total provide 20,000 flats with limited floor areas. These flats can better cater the needs of locals who seek to buy a home in Hong Kong.
2. Increase the proportion of the provision of flats with limited floor areas in the 2012 List of Sites for Sale by Application.
3. Available flats should first be ensured for locals. Non-local buyers should pay extra 10% stamp duty.
4. Since it is more difficult to know the identity of buyer under a company name and it is possible for non-locals to avoid the extra stamp duty as a result, company buyers should also pay extra 10% stamp duty.

We, Green Sense, sincerely hope Donald Tsang, CY Leung and Henry Tang to seriously address this “deep-rooted problem” of Hong Kong, and grant Hongkongers an opportunity of buying and having a comfortable home.

Research Data

Table 1  Categories of purchasers of new & major development

Table 2 The ratio of Mainland purchasers and Hong Kong purchasers

Table 3 Percentage of Mainland purchasers
(The calculated ratio above will be used to estimate the number of mainland purchasers in the form of company buyers)

Note: There may be other circumstances which cannot be reflected upon the above calculation, for example, company dormitory and foreigners.

Table 4 Money invested

Table 5 Purchasing power of Hongkonger vs Purchase power of Mainlander

Note: These are not company purchasers.

We, Green Sense, have endeavored to ensure accuracy. However, we do not guarantee there are no mistakes in the above data. The risk of mistakes should be one of your considerations before citing the above research.

CLP Power Hong Kong Administration Building (Head Office Building)(CLP Building) is a proposed Grade 1 Historic Building. The coming construction of 3 walled buildings will destroy its beauty.
Grade 1 Ho Tung Gardens however enjoy full conservation. There is Unclear conservation policy in HK.
Inadequate and deceiving picture under “Artists’ Impression” given by CLP
Green Sense urges TPB: require developers to release full application documents online, not only a summary

Haw Par Mansion, a Grade 1 Historic Building in Wan Chai, has merged with a walled building – The Legend, having a 9-storey carpark. Even calculating only the carpark, its height is already enough to exceed the height of the historic building. Also in Wan Chai, there is a Grade 3 Historic Building – Wan Chai Market. Two years ago, what was once declared “core elements preservation” by Urban Renewal Authority is now a luxurious residential development project by Chinese Estates Group.A 40-storeys building was constructed right above the market. It’s now time to think, whether the so-called “balance between conservation and development” in fact path the way for elimination of our scarce historic buildings?

The construction of CLP Building in Kowloon Argyle Street was finished in 1940s. It is over 70 years old and was proposed to be a Grade 1 Historic Building by Antiquities and Monuments Office. We, Green Sense, think that CLP Building should enjoy full conservation, especially as the clock tower in Star Ferry Pier, Central, constructed in a similar style, has already been demolished. The whole CLP Building should now be better preserved.

You can see there are many trees surrounding the CLP Building. The Building is over 70 years old.

CLP proposed to construct three 20-storey walled buildings and 5-storey carpark above the CLP Buildings. CLP claimed that it demonstrates a balance between conservation and development. Mrs. Carrie Lam, Secretary for Development later publicly supported the project. We, Green Sense, are really disappointed – there is nowhere you can find walled buildings above historic buildings except in Hong Kong. Haw Par Mansion and Wan Chai Market are examples how walled buildings destroy the spirit of a historic building.

On Friday (4 DEC 2011), Town Planning Board (TPB) will discuss the application from CLP. We are really disturbed by the possible weird combination of walled buildings and historic building. The clock tower in CLP Building (constructed earlier than the one in Star Ferry Pier) may become one of the components of a carpark. Roy Tam, President of Green Sense, said, “nowadays, striking a balance between conservation and development become an acceptable justification. In fact, it is nothing but an excuse to damage historic buildings.”

Apart from conservation reasons, we also raise objections for its lack of spacing between blocks and its excessive provision of parking spaces, which makes the carpark podium too large.

Also, we have found that the picture under artists’ impression released by CLP to the media a month ago was deceiving because of its photo-taking angle. And it is the one put on the TPB website. The public can hardly receive adequate and comprehensive information. The whole application document should be put online, instead of few chosen pages of summary. Currently, the public can only find the full documents in the secretariats of TPB in Shatin and North Point, and not the official website. It is inconvenient for environmental groups, the public and reporters. We sincerely hope TPB require full application documents to be put on web.

Illustration
Deceiving Pictures from CLP

This is the picture from application summary in the TPB website, intended to give a false impression that CLP Building could be conserved harmoniously with 3 new buildings.

Picture provided by CLP

We have searched the full application document (which is kept in Shatin and North Point only), and found a very different picture. The following picture shows that the 3 new high-rise buildings are enormous and the clock tower is too small to be located at the first sight.

The proposed buildings are enormous and the clock tower is hard to be seen.

If there is no requirement from the TPB that full documents have to be released online, developers may simply produce pictures that are favourable to them.
Moreover, the consultancy team of Green Sense has vigorously studied the provided picture, which is under artists’ impression, and concluded that the depicted buildings may be smaller than the actual size of the proposed buildings. According to the CLP application, the proposed 3 buildings with a carpark podium should have reached 100m above Principle Datum (PD). We actually went there to observe and compare the CLP Building and the surrounding buildings, which are 100m PD. And we also concluded that the depicted buildings in the released picture under artists’ impression could well be too small. Based on the concerned picture, we have drawn a more realistic picture (in right). We now put the two pictures together for comparison and for your judgement.

(Left) Picture from CLP for TPB (Right) the one, we think, more adequately described the actual size of the proposed buildings.

About Redevelopment Project in Argyle Street by CLP
Objections – Town Planning Reason and Design of the Building

The application from CLP concerning the CLP Building in Argyle Street proposed to have part of its building re-developed as three 25-storey residential buildings (including 5-storey podium). We, Green Sense, object to the proposal and now provide the following 4 reasons relating to the town planning issues.

(1)    Three Walled Buildings
The 3 proposed buildings abut each other and there is no spacing between blocks. The 3 buildings are walled buildings with the width exceeding 70m. Adverse effect upon visual beauty, natural lighting and ventilation is to be expected. The new practice note concerning inflated buildings, taking effect on 1 APR 2011, is intended to avoided walled buildings and to ensure there are sufficient spacing between blocks. To our astonishment, the clock tower, because of no further construction, is considered to be a breezeway of this project. Development Bureau should not allow the exploitation of the loopholes of the regulations by CLP and definitely should not approve the project.

(2)     Near Mong Kok East Station   Excessive Car Parking Space
The concerned site is close to Mong Kok East MTR Station. In fact, it takes less than 10mins to walk to the station. However, there are 137 parking spaces provided. (The amount of flats provided are 175.) The government has years ago reviewed the problematic and outdated planning policy concerning the provision of parking spaces in private residential buildings. However, there is yet any new instruction.

(3)    No Modification Concerning the 80m Height Restriction Should be Allowed
The current height restriction of the area is 80m because the neighbouring buildings are of this similar height. There are lower buildings in the North of the concerned site. The applied modification to have 20m more is simply too much. The approval of such will become a very bad precedent, since only less than 10m would be granted previously. Moreover, the 5-storey podium is the main reason why the buildings are so tall. We will now explain why the carpark in the podium should not be granted concession from the calculation of plot ratio.

(4)    Alternative Regulations in relation to Non-accountable Gross Floor Area  Prefer the Stricter One
The podium under the proposed development has five storeys. Among them four are indoor podium and are mainly carparks. One floor is an open area for occupants. The site is between the lower Argyle Street (about 13m PD) and the higher Kadoorie Avenue (about 28mPD). For this kind of site, when calculating the concession of the plot ratio for carparks, there are two clauses applicable under the Practice Note of Buildings Department (APP-2 Practice Note for Authorized Persons, Registered Structural Engineers and Registered Geotechnical Engineers – Calculation of Gross Floor Area and Non-accountable Gross Floor Area Building (Planning) Regulation 23(3)(a) and (b)). One is the stricter APP-2 clause 15(b)(vii)(2). Another is the lenient APP-2 clause 15(b)(vii)(4).

We, Green Sense, prefers the stricter APP-2 clause 15(b)(vii)(2) to be applied in the concerned site, instead of allowing CLP to have its 4-storey carparks all disregarded and exempted from calculation. (All sites have to comply with the restriction of a designated maximum plot ratio in order to have its plans approved.) According to the clause, ground level is either the mean level of the streets abutting the site or 5m above the lower Argyle Street. Because the lower one prevails, the ground level should be 18mPD, and what is below 18mPD will be underground carpark, and can be exempted from calculation. But what is above 18mPD should not be considered as underground carpark and should have only 50% exemption. The remaining 50% area of the carpark should be included in the calculation of gross floor area and the development, as a whole, should not exceed the designated plot ratio. The relevant clauses are the following:

APP-2 clause 15(b)(vii)(2):

(vii) A carpark may be accepted as an underground carpark in the following circumstances: …
(2) If the site abuts more than one street, a carpark maybe accepted as an underground carpark if the structural ceiling soffit of the carpark is at or below the level obtained by dividing the sum of the mean levels of the respective portion of the streets on which the site abuts by the number of such streets on which the site abuts and subject to the level so obtained is not more than 5m above the mean level of that portion of the lowest street on which the site abuts;

Unfortunately, CLP may be granted application under APP-2 clause 15(b)(vii)(4), and have the carpark area all exempted from calculation of gross floor area (Secretary for Development Mrs. Lam publicly supported the project.)

APP-2 clause 15(b)(vii)(4):

15(b) For private carparking spaces which are intended for the use of the occupants and their bona fide visitors of the parent building, the BA may disregard them from GFA calculation under Regulation 23(3)(b) of the B(P)R subject to the following criteria :-
(iii) In order to help reduce building bulk, 100% GFA concession may be granted for underground car parks while only 50% GFA concession may be granted for aboveground car parks.
(vii) A carpark may be accepted as an underground carpark in the following circumstances:
(4) When there are site constraints that affect the design and location of the carparking floors e.g. there is significant difference in the levels of the street(s) on which the site abuts; there is an existing large platform that governs the carparking design; the carpark is semi-sunken and follows the slope profile of the site and adjoining land, etc., the BA may consider the special circumstances of the case in accepting a carpark as an underground carpark.

As evidenced above, the two clauses are conflicting as one stricter and one more lenient. We suggest the stricter one should be adopted in order to prevent excessively enormous carpark from being constructed.

For the above 4 town planning reasons, we, Green Sense, oppose the re-development project of the CLP Building.

Recently, there is skepticism aroused towards the long waited regulations of inflated buildings. The proposed regulation announced by Mrs. Carrie Lam, Secretary for Development will take effect on 1^st April, 2011, which still allows half year for developers to apply for concessions. MTR, the Government being the major shareholder, has 6 approved, but not tendered plans for construction of inflated buildings. These 6 plans include Long Ping(North), Tin Shui Wai, Tin Shui Wai (LRT Tin Wing Station)、Tsuen Wan West (TW5 Bay side)、Tsuen Wan West (TW5 City side)及Tsuen Wan West (TW6).

These 6 projects have large podium ranging from 3 storeys to 7 storeys, which consist of multi-storey car parks, clubhouses and shopping malls. This style of development is now known as ‘birthday cake’ (large podium being the cake and residential buildings on top as candles), definitely detrimental to the ventilation of the neighborhood. The construction of large podium is also apparently contradicts the new regulations- to construct car park underground and to reduce the size of clubhouse. The original average size of the flats is around 600 sq.ft. to 700 sq.ft. whereas the estimated final flat size of the “inflated” flats is round 800 sq.ft. to 1000sq.ft.. There will be large flats of three rooms but not medium or relatively smaller flats which most of the potential owners would like to purchase.

Among the 6 projects, five of them are former projects of KCR West Rail. KCR and MTR are the former and the current agent or trustee of the project respectively, the Government in fact being the true owner of the projects. The Government can still change the five projects and instruct MTR to summit the newly drafted plans after 1^st April next year.

We, Green Sense, recommend the Government and MTR to amend the above mentioned projects:

1)      GFA concessions should be less than 10%;

2)      Construct only underground car parks and significantly reduce the number of parking spaces.

3)      Some projects are walled buildings and therefore the gross floor area should be reduced. Also, the distance between buildings should be sufficiently widened.

4)      Replace large flats by medium or small flats.

Mr. Roy Tam, President of Green Sense, pointed out, “There are walled buildings all along the coast ofTsuen Wan. If the current plan of Tsuen Wan west which allows the construction of inflated buildings is not changed, the ventilation of Tsuen Wan district will be even worse.” We, Green Sense, recommend the scale of Tsuen Wan West (TW5) project reduce 30%, the average size of flats reduce from 700 sq.ft. to 500 sq.ft., with the number of flats unchanged.

Urban Renewal Authority (URA) has issued an invitation for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for theFuk Tsun Street/Pine Street Project. Around a dozen developers have make EOI submission. It is anticipated there will be a tender soon. We urge URA to require the successful bidder to submit the plan after 1st April next year as to follow the new regulation on GF concessions. And the requirement should be made as a term in the tender contract. This project is a single-block development, providing 72 residential flats.

We again, urge developers to act upon conscience while making money, but not as an old Chinese saying suggests, “to consider morality after huge profit is made”. It is meaningless for the developers to donate the money to the Community Care Fund after greed exploitation of the community. We hope that, even developers are to ride on the “last train” for construction of inflated buildings, no more irritating design be included in the flats, such as 80cm bay window.

We will issue letters to all major developers, especially those who donated money to Community Care Fund, expressing our above request, with the hope that they should not squeeze every dollar or even cent out of the concession of gross floor area granted by the government.