The area of Yuen Long Tung Shing Lei project is equivalent to one-third of Victoria Park.
The Government is reviewing the development of brownfield land with potential for development, and it is expected that further technical research will be carried out by the end of this year, after when an announcement of how much brownfield land can be used for public housing will be made. There is developer has applied for developing its brownfield land in the New Territories to avoid the great depreciation of land, and the plan is developing 16 buildings of tiered houses in 45-layer of the highest and 34 villas in 3-layer totally supplying 3,848 units on one land site in Tung Shing Lei, Yuen Long, with the total floor area up to 1.835 million sq ft.
Journalist: Ngan Lun-lok
The Government will accept applications for the Land Sharing Pilot Program early next year, also announced that it will use the Land Resumption Ordinance for large-scale brownfield land reclamation involving 450 hectares. In the first stage, it will give priority to review whether 160 hectares of brownfield land that close to existing infrastructure can be used as public housing, and it is expected that further technical research will be carried out by the end of this year, after when an announcement of how much brownfield land can be used to build public housing will be made. The news has spurred developers to accelerate the applications and development of their farmland.
The land is classified into "Undecided use land”.
The Town Planning Board has just received a new application. A consortium has applied for the development of a brownfield land in Tung Shing Lei, Nam Sang Wai, which is classified into "Undecided use land” in 576,800 sq ft amount to one third of Victoria Park. The applicant states that the development of the land had not been finalized because it was waiting for the final tracks of the West Rail Line and the Yuen Long Drainage route. However, the development of the land has been under review since the completion of the above two projects in 2003 and 2006, and it is really a waste of land that ready for development near the new town of Yuen Long.
The land site is located between the new town of Yuen Long and two main residential clusters in Kam Tin North, near to Pok Oi Hospital, and the majority of the current site is idle or fragmented squatter huts and brownfields. The applicant states that the land site is a large piece of flat land with high development potential and perfect infrastructure, but it has been idle for 29 years, so it is believed that the development would help to solve the problem of incompatible land use in the rural areas of the New Territories, also the applicant has prepared master layout plan for this purpose.
According to the developer's new plan, the land site will be integrated into residential development. The residential part will be developed at a plot ratio of 3.082 times providing 1.7778 million sq ft, and another part will be used for non-residential development at a plot ratio of 0.1 time providing 57,674 sq ft. It is planed to build 16 buildings of tiered houses in 45-layer of the highest supplying 3,814 units and 34 villas in 3-layer, with the average area of 462 sq ft, and it is predicted to be completed in 2026 of the fast. As for private parking spaces, it will have 372 units, and the area of private open space will be about 120,000 sq ft.
It is emphasized that the plan will not hinder the construction of public housing.
It is worth noting that the application document specifically mentioned the new measures in the Government Policy Address last month, stating that the Government intends to develop public housing in Tung Shing Lei area, thus the applicant proposed an indicative development plan for the site and the rest of the nearby land, referring to the entire "undecided use land" has been reserved part of the land for public housing development, and the private land in the area should be ensured of the right of way and development potential are not affected, also stressed that the application will not reduce the development potential of the rest of the area.
The applicant states that if the master layout plan was adopted, the entire “undecided use land” would be a certain of extension of Yuen Long new town, and would provide a total of 15,495 units based on the current Government’s public and private housing ratio of about 7 to 3. In order to protect the nearby Tung Shing Lei Egretry, the northeastern part of the application site will only be used for low-density residential development and landscape design to conserve nature, enhance biodiversity, and reduce environmental disturbances, also provide a more carefully designed and managed environment suitable for migratory birds.
Kerry applies for the redevelopment of its Dangerous Goods Warehouse.
In addition, the Town Planning Board has just received an application for the redevelopment of industrial buildings. Kerry has proposed to relax the plot ratio by 20% from 9.5 times to 11.4 times and rebuild the Dangerous Goods Warehouse at 7 Kai Hing Road, Kowloon Bay, into a commercial building. The site in approximately 46,211 sq ft will be rebuilt into a commercial building not exceeding 26-layer including a 5-layer basement, with the total floor area of approximately 526,802 sq ft.
It is understood that the site was allowed to be rebuilt for residential development in 2012 into 3 buildings of tiered houses providing about 216 units.
