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1. Tree expert defends role with developer

2. Yau Tong Bay project at mercy of public opinion

1. Tree expert defends role with developer
CHLOE LAI , SCMP 9 May 2005

Cheung Kong (Holdings) has hired the city's top tree specialist to preserve trees that survived its site clearance at the former Marine Police headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui.

University of Hong Kong geography professor Jim Chi-yung has confirmed he has been hired for Cheung Kong's boutique hotel project, but stressed his participation was to ensure better protection for the surviving trees.

Of the 192 trees on the original Tsim Sha Tsui site, Cheung Kong felled more than 140. Only about 24 remain; 19 have been transplanted elsewhere. Most of the survivors are Banyan trees.

The firm started cutting down trees in December to make way for a boutique hotel and retail complex.

"The government approved Cheung Kong's proposal for cutting trees," Professor Jim said. "There wasn't anything I could do to stop it. I believe that by being a consultant, I can give the trees better protection.

"I give [Cheung Kong] advice on how to protect the trees as there is construction work going on.

"When they don't know what to do, I tell them what they should do and they do whatever I tell them to do."

Professor Jim was approached for the consulting work early last year, nearly one year before the developer started cutting down trees at the site.

The professor has been urging the government to adopt an urban trees ordinance to save the city's trees.

He said that it was the only Cheung Kong project he had accepted.

His contract will expire a year after the project's completion at the end of next year.

According to Professor Jim, a condition set by the government was that the developer must hire an independent tree expert to protect the surviving trees.

He believed the developer would have hired an overseas expert to the job if he had turned down the position.

But legislator Choy So-yuk criticised Professor Jim's work for Cheung Kong. The Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong lawmaker is working on a private member's bill to protect trees.

"As a tree lover, he should stop anything that is harmful to trees. He should tell the developer that he will only work for them if they stop hurting the trees," she said.

"I wouldn't blame him if he was hired after the trees were cut. But he shouldn't have taken up the offer after knowing more than 140 trees would have to go."

A Cheung Kong spokeswoman said Professor Jim was hired because he was a renowned expert in the preservation of trees.

"Given the importance of maintaining some of the largest and oldest trees on the site of the former Marine Police Headquarters, we enlisted Professor Jim as an independent third-party tree specialist on top of our team of landscape consultants," she said.

The professor would be hired until the end of the first year of the project's operation, she said.

Professor Jim will advise on how the landscape should be designed, including aspects such as where trenches should be placed for trees that will be planted along Canton and Salisbury Roads.

Cheung Kong prompted a public outcry in the middle of last year after cutting 250 trees for its luxury One Beacon Hill property development.

Last month, the Lands Department blocked the handover of the Cairnhill luxury project because the developers had damaged protected trees.

2. Yau Tong Bay project at mercy of public opinion
FOSTER WONG , SCMP 7 May 2005

Developers are unlikely to see much in the way of progress at the $10 billion Yau Tong Bay redevelopment project in the near future as public calls to protect Victoria Harbour from reclamation delay proceedings, according to one of its investors, Henderson Land Development.

Under the redevelopment plan, which has been in existence since 1989, heavily polluted Yau Tong Bay would be transformed into a 22-hectare residential-cum-commercial development. According to blueprints, a total of 12.5 hectares of land would be reclaimed from the sea.

"Public opinion has been strongly against any land reclamation in Victoria Harbour, so we don't expect to see any breakthrough for the Yau Tong Bay project in the foreseeable future," said Colin Lam Ko-yin, vice-chairman at Henderson Land, which owns a 19 per cent stake in the project. Mr Lam was speaking after yesterday's annual general meeting of Hong Kong Ferry (Holdings), a Henderson Land subsidiary.

Approval for land reclamation projects around Victoria Harbour has been difficult to obtain since a 2003 court ruling went against reclamation off Wan Chai. The ruling said that developers had to demonstrate an "overriding public need" to justify reclamation.

Industry observers have suggested that making such a case for the Yau Tong project will prove problematic.

The project, developed by a Henderson-led consortium of more than 10 developers, has already received approval from the Environmental Protection Department with respect to land reclamation but it also needs a green light from the Town Planning Board.

A spokesman for Cornerstone Communications, the public relations firm acting for the developer consortium, claimed that, in fact, reclamation would be positive for Yau Tong Bay as it would involve a clean up of the area's heavy pollution, left over from when the bay was home to a shipyard.

The redevelopment envisages 38 residential blocks with a gross floor area of 9.7 million square feet, of which about 1.72 million sqft would be attributable to the group.

Separately, Hong Kong Ferry said it had brought in more than $1 billion this year from selling 170 residential units at Metro Harbour View in Tai Kok Tsui.

The average price of flats at Metro Harbour grew 20 per cent year on year to $4,500 per square foot, the firm said.

"We plan to sell the remaining 500 unsold units of Metro Harbour View this year," said Mr Lam, who is also chairman of Hong Kong Ferry.

He added the company would start pre-sales at another residential project, 43 -51A Tong Mi Road, by the middle of this year while completion for the project was scheduled for early next year.