1 Office receives 250 submissions about grading of historic buildings
Joyce Ng, SCMP 11 July 2009

The Antiquities and Monuments Office has received 250 submissions from the public about the grading of historic buildings, with most disagreeing with the existing rankings.

The public have been asked to give their own grading for more than 1,400 historic sites under a new approach to heritage preservation, after the office completed a survey of all the sites in March. The consultation period ends this month.

"Some submissions suggest upgrading or downgrading the historic buildings, and some suggest classifying more sites to be historic and de-classifying some," Tom Ming Kay-chuen, executive secretary of the office, said on a press heritage tour yesterday.

The tour also took in the restored Bethanie building in Pok Fu Lam.

Bernard Chan, chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board, said many property owners wrongly assumed that site grading undermines their rights.

"We are not robbing private property by grading them," he said.

He acknowledged that graded buildings, unlike declared monuments, did not have any special legal protection from demolition. Stronger protection for graded buildings should be a long-term goal, but the government did not have the resources at the moment, he said.

The tour introduced the Tung Wah Coffin Home in Pok Fu Lam, which provided services to the families of Chinese emigrants to the United States during the California Gold Rush in the late 19th century. Previously ungraded, the site has been proposed to receive grade two status.

"Having your body buried in your hometown after dying is a strong Chinese tradition, but at that time the Chinese were not allowed to have a proper burial in the United States," Stella See Sau-ying, administration secretary of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, said. "This was something unacceptable to them."

Operators of the home, built in 1899, volunteered to arrange for the dead bodies, and sometimes just bones, to be transported from the US back to China. It was estimated to have served tens of thousands of Chinese. Ms See said the site was historic as it kept an archive of historical documents about the lives of the emigrants and charity work at that time.

Such records on the mainland were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s.

 

2 Building design controls opposed
Joyce Ng, SCMP 11 July 2009

An architect working for a leading property developer yesterday spoke out against government proposals to impose building design controls and cut back on the amount of extra floor space developers can earn by incorporating "green" features into their projects.

Kevin Ng Shu-keung, assistant general manager of Henderson Land Development, said the proposed guidelines were excessive and disrespected private property rights.

Mr Ng - who said later he was not speaking for Henderson Land - was among about 100 people who attended the first consultation forum on proposals for achieving a sustainable built environment.

The six-month consultation by the Council for Sustainable Development is seeking views on whether the government should continue to allow extra gross floor area in projects that include features such as balconies and podium gardens.

The policy has been blamed for allowing developers to increase the height and bulk of buildings.

The consultation document also proposes a set of design guidelines, specifying a minimum amount of greenery, gaps between buildings and street widths.

Most of those who spoke yesterday agreed with the proposals.

But Mr Ng, presenting the results of a round-table discussion with several participants, asked: "What's the use if you cut back your building and make the street wider, but your neighbours don't?"

He said the proposal to separate buildings with gaps, if they formed a continuous width of more than 60 metres, was arbitrary.

"Should you use a stick or a carrot? I think the government should encourage developers to go green, such as certifying green buildings."

The architect said the existing procedural controls were effective, and if the government wanted to address concern about new projects, a community impact assessment could be required of developers.

Mr Ng said after the forum that his views did not represent Henderson Land although he registered for the forum with his company name.

He added that it was not appropriate to impose the same percentage of floor area cap on all sites in the city since landscapes differed.

 

3 Reclaimed land may not be used
Albert Wong, SCMP 11 July 2009

Despite the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland, approved by lawmakers yesterday, 60 hectares of reclaimed land could be left unused until 2029. The 5.1 hectare extension will take the park to 27.5 hectares - less than a quarter of the 125.4 hectares set aside for Phase 1 of the park.

And the theme park operator since 1999 has a 20-year option to buy a further 60 hectares known as Phase 2, with the possibility of extending the option for a further 10 years.

Corporate governance activist David Webb called for the agreement to be scrapped, saying Disney was never likely to make enough money to be able to exercise the option.

Legislator Audrey Eu Yuet-mee aired similar views saying it was "almost a crime" to have the land tied up for so long.

On his website, Mr Webb noted that while Phase 2 was owned by the government, Hong Kong International Theme Parks - the joint venture between the government and The Walt Disney Company that runs the park - has a 20-year option to buy it at the reclamation cost of HK$2.8 billion plus inflation.

The option can automatically be extended for five years and conditionally for a further five if park attendance is more than 8 million but less than 10 million, meaning it could have priority until 2029.

"One can only assume, in the absence of published accounts, that the park generates just enough cash to cover its operating expenses but not to finance any expansion," Mr Webb wrote.

"Given the looming competition from Shanghai Disneyland ... it seems unlikely that Hong Kong Disneyland would ever be able to justify, on financial grounds, exercising the option to purchase and build out Phase 2. So we face the prospect of watching 60 hectares of public land sit empty for 20 years, or be subject to low-rent, short-term projects like golf driving ranges."

At the Legislative Council's finance committee, Civic Party leader Ms Eu stressed how valuable land was in Hong Kong. "To find land for schools and hospitals is already a painful search."

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan said Disneyland still had first right of refusal over the land, but was in the process of discussing whether it could be used for other purposes on a short-term lease.

Afterwards, Ms Eu said the government still did not seem to know what to do with the land in Phase 2.

"It's almost a crime to have that land tied up," she said. "So far, it's all just promises up in the air, and the government has not been good at keeping promises."