1 High-rise freeze call in warm Kowloon
Timothy Chui, SCMP 10 June 2008

A green group wants a freeze on skyscraper development in Tai Kok Tsui in west Kowloon to slow urban warming and to prevent the wind-blocking encirclement of its town center.

"It is a common complaint of local residents that the area's temperatures have been rising steadily over the past decade, while the only major changes have been the series of high-rises forming a ring around Tai Kok Tsui," said Greensense president Roy Tam Hoi- pong.

Tam's group, which is calling for the government to construct roof-top gardens on the district's low-rise apartment buildings, will meet the Buildings Department to call for a hold on tower developments in the area and the disclosure of further building plans in the neighborhood.

Tam said the old town center clustered near the intersection of Tai Kok Tsui Road and Fuk Tsun Street is being choked by a series of high-rises.

He said Park Avenue and Central Park are dominating the south, and One SilverSea, Harbour Green, Metro Harborview and the Urban Renewal Authority's Cherry Street and Bedford Street projects towering above the north and west.

The group is also calling for a halt to the construction of Sino Land's Hoi Ting Road project which will complete the circle and turn the district into "Kowloon's newest walled city," Tam said.

An application by concerned student Bernard Tang Fai-cheong to view Sino Land's construction plan at the Buildings Department was rejected.

A similar request to Sino Land was also turned down.

A May survey of 283 residents found nearly 67.5 percent thought the building's orientation would reduce airflow, and 31 percent thought the blocks were too high.

The survey also found 71.8 percent in support of full public consultation for future projects, and 71.4 percent thought the skyscrapers were responsible for reducing airflow.