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1. Kwun Tong's $25b 'rebirth' begins

2. Residents lose control of Wedding Card Street

3. Sports club submits building plan

1. Kwun Tong's $25b 'rebirth' begins
CHLOE LAI, SCMP 5 November 2005

Kwun Tong, a crumbling and depressed area where residents are living in often dire
conditions, will be transformed under the project, with new life breathed into an area
covering 5.5 hectares over 10 years. SCMP photo

Hong Kong's biggest redevelopment project kicked off yesterday amid predictions it will cost $25 billion and take 10 years.

The bill just to buy properties and pay compensation in Kwun Tong town centre is likely to cost $10 billion as the Urban Renewal Authority project rejuvenates the run-down industrial district.

The authority promised the redevelopment would bring more open space and a greater range of facilities, while old trees in the town centre would not be sacrificed. It refused, however, to disclose the development density.

It wants to submit a development plan to the Town Planning Board in June and start purchasing by March 2007.

David Lung Ping-yee, who chairs the authority's Kwun Tong district advisory committee, said it had to study how to come up with such a huge amount.

Speaking after the committee's first meeting, Professor Lung said the most difficult part was to secure the co-operation of various government departments, given the widely differing views on how the project should proceed.

Professor Lung, who heads the University of Hong Kong's architecture department, said the positioning of the new Kwun Tong was the authority's priority.

"Everyone at the meeting agreed it was not just a Kwun Tong issue, it was a city-wide project. There were views that Kwun Tong should be the commercial and financial centre of east Kowloon."

The project, which affects 23 buildings and 1,635 property rights, was announced early in 1998 by the dissolved Land Development Corporation. It was passed on to the Urban Renewal Authority after it was set up three years later.

A survey commissioned by the authority found that most residents thought the buildings were so run down and the living environment so dire that they preferred a complete redevelopment over renovation.

The 5.3-hectare project includes Yuet Wah Street bus terminal and the area bordered by Hip Wo Street, Mut Wah Street, Hong Ning Road and Kwun Tong Road.

Professor Lung said the authority would listen to those residents affected and stressed consensus was the prerequisite of making any master plan.

A dozen residents attending the meeting sought guarantees that the project would start at the earliest and not be put on hold again.

Their demands include purchase and compensation offers to all those affected simultaneously, contrary to the authority's plan to roll out the project in phases.

Professor Lung vowed the authority would balance the interests of various parties, such as residents, shopkeepers, hawkers and minibus drivers.

2. Residents lose control of Wedding Card Street
CHLOE LAI, SCMP 5 November 2005

A dozen former and current residents of Wedding Card Street gathered there for the last time yesterday as it reverted to government land at midnight.

"We are very sad. We will stay here tonight as it is the final moment where we still own the land. In a few hours, the entire street will be the government's property," said Kam Fok Lai-ching, a representative of the H15 Concern Group.

From today, the government has 28 days to make a final offer to die-hard residents who refuse to move out of the old buildings to allow the wrecking crews to move in. After that, they may be forcibly evicted.

Mrs Lam would not say how long they would hold out or whether they would fight any eviction.

The Lands Department gazetted the resumption order for land in Lee Tung Street - as it is properly known - on August 5, allowing it to take over properties from owners who refuse to sell to the Urban Renewal Authority. When the government issued the order, the authority owned 80 per cent of property rights. It now has 92 per cent in its hands.

The old buildings will be replaced by residential high-rises with shops on the ground floor.

Steve Chan Yiu-fai, a Wan Chai district councillor, said it was wrong for the government to think that every old community would accept redevelopment.

"We hope the authority can learn from the unhappy experience of Wedding Card Street that it is wrong to use the same redevelopment model on every community," he said. "In Kwun Tong, many eagerly want redevelopment, but here in Wan Chai many want to stay."

He said a booklet called The Street Newspaper would be published to document the struggle in the neighbourhood over the past two years. A total of 15,000 copies have been printed and will be distributed to Wan Chai residents, government officials and legislators.

Another Wan Chai district councillor, Maryann King Pui-wai, hoped the government would be more sensitive to the needs of different neighbourhoods in future urban renewal projects.?

3. Sports club submits building plan
SANDY LI, SCMP 5 November 2005

The South China Athletic Association plans to add a hotel-residential building on a site next to its sports and recreation club in Causeway Bay.

An application to convert the land use of the site in Caroline Hill Road was submitted to the Town Planning Board yesterday. "It is still at a very preliminary stage," said a spokeswoman for the association.