1 West Kowloon height limits to be discussed
Olga Wong, SCMP 22 October 2008
The Town Planning Board will hold a hearing this month to discuss a call from a team of veteran architects and developers for height restrictions imposed on the West Kowloon Cultural District to be removed.
More than 20 architects and developers' representatives wrote a letter of objection to the Town Planning Board in May, a month after the Planning Department proposed three height zones for the development.
Complaining that the limits restricted the flexibility for designing the world-class arts hub, they asked for a board hearing and a meeting with Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen, who is tipped to chair the statutory body that will oversee the development.
A spokesman for the Town Planning Board said yesterday that it would hold a hearing on the issue at the end of the month.
Architects signing the objection letter include Rocco Yim Sen-kee, the winner of the government headquarters design competition; lawmaker Patrick Lau Sau-shing; Harbourfront Enhancement Committee member Vincent Ng Wing-shun; Wallace Chang Ping-hung, a professor with the department of architecture at Chinese University; and Wong Kam-sing of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects.
Representatives from developers include project director Julia Lau Man-kwan, of Sun Hung Kai, and development director Donald Choi Wun-hing, of Nan Fung Group. Both developers have properties in the district.
The Planning Department has proposed dividing the elongated 40-hectare site into three zones with different height controls.
The western part is set at 50 metres; the central part in front of Kowloon Station is set at 100 metres; and the eastern part is set at 70 metres.
A spokeswoman for the Planning Department said the proposal was aimed at keeping a 20 per cent building-free zone below the Kowloon Hills ridgeline when viewed from vantage points on Hong Kong Island.
But Alex Lui Chun-wan, chairman of a taskforce on West Kowloon set up by the Institute of Architects, said it was too early to impose height limits, before a master layout plan for the arts hub was drawn up.
Mr Lui said a large portion of the ridgeline view was already blocked by buildings above Kowloon station.
Taskforce member Freddie Hai Tuen-tai said most arts venues were likely to be at the western tip and it would be difficult to integrate them with other developments because the government had already specified that residential development should be about 70 metres high whereas the hotel development was about 100 metres.
"It is a joke to put all the tallest buildings on the headland. Some would have to be built on top of the Western Harbour Tunnel, which would be costly and difficult," Mr Lui said, stressing that imposing height controls would not reduce density.
Premature height controls "will only give rise to dense and flat buildings", he said, urging the government to wait until the authority came up with a master plan and let the board decide whether it was reasonable.
The institute urged the government to set up its own taskforce across departments to ensure the arts hub would not become "an isolated castle".
