1 KCRC in plan to limit wall effect
Carol Chung and Diana Lee, The Standard 27 August 2007

Kowloon Canton Railway Corp has proposed to scale down the residential development on West Rail's Nam Cheong Station amid the community's increasing concern over wind-blocking high-rises.

Sources said KCRC has submitted five or six plans to the government - the railway's owner - for consideration, warning that future development on Nam Cheong Station will be subject to "a lot of pressure" unless the development scale - now already a hot issue among green activists - is lowered.

A source said it is beyond KCRC's power to decide if the prospective Nam Cheong development would be scaled down as it is the government which has the final say.

"But it will face a lot of pressure from society if nothing is changed," the source warned.

It is understood that a consultant of the KCRC has put forward five or six "improved" plans to reduce the scale of the residential projects such as permitting fewer tower blocks or stories following months of complaints from environmental groups over the potential "wall effect" of giant property developments along the West Rail.

KCRC has yet to open the Nam Cheong development to tender.

The government is understood to have reservations about KCRC's proposal.

The financial implication has emerged to be the biggest concern within the government's power center since the reduction may shed hundreds of "billions of dollars" in land premium to be paid by the winning developers.

Another source said the Development Bureau as well as the Transport and Housing Bureau do not have strong feelings about the proposed reduction and are willing to back amendment of the original project approved by the Town Planning Board.

The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau has voiced reservations for fears that the proposed reduction will inevitably affect public income.

The news came as local campaigners made a fresh attempt to limit the development which had been approved to build 10 high-rise residential towers atop Nam Cheong station, citing fears over a wall effect.

Sham Shui Po district councilor Tracy Lai Wai-lan said yesterday the number of floors of the 52-story towers to be erected should be reduced although the plan had been approved by the Town Planning Board in 2004.

The project as approved by the Town Planning Board would create a 300-meter-long wall along the Sham Shui Po seafront, blocking sunlight and sealing off West Kowloon's last ventilation possibility from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mei Foo.

"The number of buildings to be axed from the plan should be at least three, and the height of the proposed towers should also not be higher than those at Fu Cheong Estate which is located directly behind," Lai said.

"Changes are never too late. The government shouldn't carry out projects that damage the environment and the people's health as the long-term costs likely to be inflicted on our health system and the environment will be far higher than profits derived from land sales," Green Sense president Roy Tam Hoi-ping said.

Planner Kenneth To Lap-kee said the government's air ventilation evaluation practice, which studies a district's annual average wind direction, is flawed as Sham Shui Po has different wind directions in summer.

Last month, a Sham Shui Po resident filed an application with the High Court seeking to halt the construction of wall- like buildings at a site on Hoi Fai Road in West Kowloon.

But the judge rejected the application, saying it was the executive's responsibility to manage the environment.