1 Hung Hom site plan reduces height, density
Helen Wu, SCMP 17 January 2008

A further reduction in building density and height has been suggested for two waterfront development sites in Hung Hom by the government - the third move to cut development intensity on prime sites this month.

The proposal was welcomed by a green group and a Town Planning Board member yesterday.

But the revision is expected to result in a drop of government revenue of about HK$1.8 billion from an original estimate of about HK$8 billion, surveyor Charles Chan Chiu-kwok said.

Under the proposal, the development density of an area at Hung Luen Road would be capped at a plot ratio of four instead of the original plot ratio of six.

The 3 hectares of land - earmarked for a hotel, office buildings and shops - would also be divided into two lots to facilitate a gradation of building heights towards the waterfront. No buildings on the site would be taller than 75 metres - or about 30 storeys.

In an adjacent residential site, a further reduction in density to 4.5 was proposed - down from the original 7.5. Building heights at the residential site would be lowered from 120 metres to 100 metres.

The Planning Department said the proposals aimed to reduce excessive building and achieve a gradation of building heights towards the harbourfront.

An air ventilation assessment was also carried out in the area.

Pedestrian boulevards were proposed as ventilation passageways, with a 20-metre-wide "visual corridor" at the central part of the site.

The government's suggestions revealed yesterday are more radical than the measures proposed by the Hung Hom District Study - undertaken by an independent consultant briefed with formulating a holistic district plan.

That proposes a plot ratio of six for the residential site and a single-site development for the comprehensive development area.

Engineer and Town Planning Board member, Greg Wong Chak-yan, said reduced building density at the site would improve ventilation.

"The 75-metre height restriction and pedestrian passageways will definitely improve air flow into the hinterland of Hung Hom, where relatively short buildings of 10 storeys stand," he said.

President of Green Sense, Roy Tam Hoi-pong said the proposal represented a significant improvement on development intensity.

"It is the second such amendment on the outline zoning plan of the waterfront area this month and we fully agree with it," he said.

But he urged the government to incorporate specific restrictions - such as the inclusion of passageways - in the conditions of sale developers must follow.

Surveyor Charles Chan estimated that the government would reap about HK$6.2 billion from the site under the new parameters.

He said the hotel development in Hung Hom would remain attractive, but the value of the residential development would be slightly affected because of the lowering of scale.

The amendments on the Hung Hom site came just two weeks after the Town Planning Board announced proposals to slash the density of a development on the former North Point Estate site by almost 70 per cent.

Drastic height and gross floor area reductions were included in the same government proposal.

The Development Bureau has said it also intends to split the controversial "groundscraper" planned for the Central harbourfront into small blocks, and set height restrictions and floor area limits.