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1. Town Planning (Amendment) Bill discussed

2. Draft Tsuen Wan West Outline Zoning Plan amended

3. Approved Quarry Bay Outline Zoning Plan amended

4. Renewal body wins discount on flats

5. Ghost house blocks multi-billion dollar project

6. Site's history shrouded by a veil of mystery

7. New World restructuring receives go-ahead

8. Downturn leaves Shui On in the red

1. Town Planning (Amendment) Bill discussed
Hong Kong Government, 13 December 2002

The Land and Building Advisory Committee today (December 13) discussed the Town Planning (Amendment) Bill.

"Given the difficulties encountered in the past in attempting an overhaul of the Ordinance, the Committee considers it a pragmatic approach to amend the Ordinance in stages. Members generally welcome the proposals of the Stage One amendments," the Chairman of the Committee, Professor Yeung Yue-man, said after the meeting.

"Members think that the proposed amendments, which aim at enhancing efficiency of the planning process and allowing greater transparency and public participation during the process, are on the right track."

"Members also welcome the proposal of requiring an applicant for planning permission or amendment to statutory plan to obtain consent of or notify the owner of the application site. This will address the current undesirable situation that a land owner can be unaware of a planning proposal which may affect the future development of his land," Professor Yeung added.

Some Members, however, expressed concerns about the proposed fee charging for planning applications and applications for amendment to statutory plan.

The Committee also discussed the "Proposed Electronic Application Submission System" which aims to facilitate the receiving and processing of various types of planning submissions through electronic means.

"Members appreciated the Government's effort in modernizing Government operations. Some Members consider that the Government should learn the experience of other countries to avoid unnecessary mistakes during the modernization process," Professor Yeung said.

2. Draft Tsuen Wan West Outline Zoning Plan amended
Hong Kong Government, 13 December 2002

The Town Planning Board today (December 13) announced amendments to the draft Tsuen Wan West Outline Zoning Plan (OZP).

The major amendments include the rezoning of part of the Lot No. 269 in DD 390 occupied by the Bellagio, a residential and commercial development at Sham Tseng, from "Comprehensive Development Area" ("CDA") to "Residential (Group A)3" ("R(A)3') to reflect the existing use and rezoning of the remaining part at the north-western corner of Bellagio from "CDA" to "Government, Institution or Community" to facilitate the school development scheduled for completion in 2007.

The Notes for the "CDA" zone are deleted and the Notes for "Residential (Group A)" ("R(A)") are revised to incorporate development restrictions for the "R(A)3" zone and a minor relaxation clause. 'Place of Recreation, Sports or Culture' and 'Public Utility Installation' uses are transferred from Column 2 to Column 1 of the Notes for "R(A)" zone.

The draft OZP incorporating the amendments, is now available for public inspection during normal office hours at the Secretariat of the Town Planning Board, 15th Floor, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point; the Tsuen Wan and West Kowloon District Planning Office, 27th Floor, Tsuen Wan Government Offices, 38 Sai Lau Kok Road; and the Tsuen Wan District Office, 1st Floor, Tsuen Wan Station Multi-storey Carpark Building, 174-208 Castle Peak Road.

Any person affected by the amendments may submit a written objection to the Secretary of the Town Planning Board on or before 3 January 2003.

Copies of the draft Tsuen Wan West OZP No. S/TWW/13 are available for sale at the Map Publications Centres in North Point and Yau Ma Tei. The electronic version of the plan is viewable from the Town Planning Board's website (www.info.gov.hk/tpb).

3. Approved Quarry Bay Outline Zoning Plan amended
Hong Kong Government, 13 December 2002

The Town Planning Board today (December 13) announced amendments to the approved Quarry Bay Outline Zoning Plan.

There are altogether six amendments. The first one involves the rezoning of a site at the rear of No.880-886 King's Road from "Government, Institution or Community" to "Commercial/Residential" to facilitate the site to be developed together with its adjoining lot for a commercial/residential development.

The other five amendments are mainly to reflect the existing developments. They include the rezoning of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Quarry Bay Station concourse from "Green Belt" ("GB") to "Other Specified Uses" annotated "MTR Station Concourse"; rezoning of Wah Shun Gardens at No.898 King's Road from "GB" to "Residential (Group A)"; rezoning of a site to the south-west of Quarry Bay Park from an area shown as 'Road' and "Open Space" to "Commercial"; and designating the extensions of Westlands Road and Hoi Tai Street as 'Road'.

The draft Plan No.S/H21/17 incorporating the amendments is now available for public inspection during normal office hours at the following locations:

* Secretariat of the Town Planning Board, 15th Floor, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong;

* Hong Kong District Planning Office, 14th Floor, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong; and

* Eastern District Office, 11th Floor, Eastern Law Courts Building, 29 Tai On Street, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong.

Any person affected by the amendments may submit a written objection to the Secretary of the Town Planning Board on or before February 13, 2003.

Copies of the draft plan are available for sale at the Map Publications Centres in Yau Ma Tei and North Point. The electronic version of the plan is viewable from the Town Planning Board's website (http://www.info.gov.hk/tpb).

4. Renewal body wins discount on flats
Staff reporter, The Standard 13 December 2002

The Housing Authority (HA) is offering the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) a 60 per cent discount on public housing flats designated for displaced residents.

The price cut would save the cash-strapped URA more than HK$1 billion, its executive director Lau Ping-cheung said.

Under the original plan, the authority would have provided URA with 1,000 homes annually over the next five to six years.

The Housing Authority had set the price of each flat at between HK$200,000 and HK$400,000, an average of HK$350,000.

But URA representatives and legislators opposed what they called ``exorbitant'' fees.

Following heavy criticism, the Housing Authority will slash prices by 60 per cent, translating to an average final price per flat of HK$130,000.

Lau said it was reasonable to expect the people concerned to pay because they had actually been shunted up the queue of people waiting for a flat, a move deemed unfair to those on the waiting list. ``But the original amount was really way too much.''

Although URA has bought the flats it does not own them. By agreement, the Housing Authority gets to reclaim the flats once residents vacate them.

3 $5b boost for slum clearance projects
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 13 December 2002

The Housing Society will invest $5 billion on seven loss-making slum clearance projects under a new alliance with the cash-strapped Urban Renewal Authority.

The two bodies yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to form a long-term partnership on urban renewal.

The partnership is a result of the government's comprehensive review on housing. A report released in June said the society should work with the authority towards forming a strategic partnership for urban slum clearance.

However, the society, a private, non-profit making body, has been reluctant to co-operate because it believes most of the authority's projects are loss-making. This year, the government agreed to inject $10 billion into the authority over the next five years to fund its projects. But the authority has still to raise a further $13 billion.

With a $10 billion cash reserve, the society will now help speed up the slum clearance programme which the authority alone could not afford.

The society's chairman, Chung Shui-ming, said the $5 billion would be spent on seven redevelopment projects in Shamshuipo and Shau Kei Wan.

He said the money, which would be spent in phases, would not generate profits for the society in the short term. "It seems to be inevitable that these projects will make a loss," he said.

It is expected that the first renewal project will begin in April.
The society will be responsible for acquiring properties, rehousing tenants affected and the construction and sale of new buildings on site.

It will also be given the power to rehabilitate or preserve some buildings on a project site.

The authority's chairman, Lau Wah-sum, said the new alliance would not shirk from its responsibility for urban redevelopment.

"The authority will not slow down the pace of its redevelopment programme. We will do everything within our resources to keep up the momentum," Dr Lau said.

The authority, formed last year, has been given the task of clearing 200 urban slums within 20 years. So far, it has only begun a few projects.

Ho Hei-wah, director of the Society for Community Organisation which has offered to help residents in slum areas, said the alliance could help speed up redevelopment projects but warned that the society lacked commitment.

"The Housing Society is reluctant to spend its money on loss-making projects . . . the redevelopment scale will either be very small or the society will be very mean in offering compensation."

5. Ghost house blocks multi-billion dollar project
KEVIN SINCLAIR, SCMP 13 December 2002

Some 300 flats at The Beverly Hills development are ready for sale at an expected $7 million each. Picture by David Wong

Property giant Henderson Land has rejected a demand to pay $20 million to take over the two-year lease of a village house that stands at the gates of a multibillion dollar property development on Tolo Harbour.

The house has recently been used for mock funeral ceremonies, scaring residents and holding up sales of hundreds of luxury apartments expected to fetch about $7 million each.

Henderson Land, controlled by billionaire tycoon Lee Shau-kee, has been approached and told it can buy the lease for $20 million but has made it plain it will not hand over any money.

"There will be absolutely no compromise," said Henderson Land general manager for property development Augustine Wong Ho-ming. It is not known who made the offer to Henderson Land.

The saga centres on a three-storey villa on traditional village land at the gates to a huge luxury estate, The Beverly Hills. Of the 537 flats already built, 300 are ready for sale and occupation permits have been issued for them. They are expected to sell for about $3,500 per square foot.

Henderson Land - which paid $5.6 billion for the site at a government auction in 1997 - has not yet started marketing the apartments, hoping to resolve the problem beforehand.

The company's low-rise, four-storey apartments are built along the sloping ridge that looks out over Tolo Harbour. The plush apartment complex covers 1.3 million sq ft and includes a club house and shops.

When Henderson bought the site, it did not include a small parcel of land once occupied by a long-abandoned village house. It was on this plot that the Shuen Wan Heung Trust constructed the three-storey villa which was completed in the middle of last year.

The clan house was built for the trust, which represents indigenous villagers of ancient settlements on the scenic Sam Mun Tsai peninsula.

The house is owned by a village trust controlled by indigenous villagers from Sam Mun Tsai but rented out to a tenant.

The village elders are highly embarrassed by the situation in which they now find themselves. They have hired a lawyer who has started proceedings to halt mock funeral ceremonies and quasi-religious proceedings and to attempt to terminate the lease.

Tai Po District Council chairman Cheung Hok-ming said there had been complaints from villagers in Sam Mun Tsai, particularly from fishermen who fear bad luck could result from false religious ceremonies.

Mr Cheung said the council had reported the matter to police and to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the agency which licenses funeral parlours.

Clansmen refuse to say to whom they rent the house. Lawyers for the owners and the tenant refuse to answer repeated calls and faxed questions.

Villagers have demonstrated against the staging of funeral-type practices. At one stage, a large banner flew from the rooftop. Statues of various gods and deities usually associated with funerals and ceremonies for the dead have been put on display around the house.

Tai Po district officer Frankie Lui Kin-fun headed a delegation from government departments and angry villagers to the house last week with a petition to the tenant, but the house was empty.

During mock ceremonies over recent weeks, people dressed in the traditional white robes of mourning burned incense. Widespread rumours in Tai Po said the house was to be used as a columbarium, a storage place for human ashes.

As concern spread among clansmen, fishermen and residents of Sam Mun Tsai, Henderson Land says it was approached by a person who suggested the lease could be taken over for $20 million. This suggestion was spurned by the company, which then asked the village trustees who owned the house if it was their intention to use the house as a funeral home.

The village elders protested vigorously that they did not know this was the intention of the tenant. They believed the $15,000-a-month house was to be used as a real estate office.

Mr Lui said no offence or breach of any law had been committed, dismissing the rumours about remains having been stored in the house.

"You can't stop people wearing white and burning incense," he said.

Police and officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Health Department and other government agencies said there had been no official complaints.

Tai Po district councillor Chan Ping, a native of Sam Mun Tsai, wants the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to sue the tenants and those taking part in funeral activities.

However, officials said religious rituals such as burning clothes are not considered funeral services. No licence was required, they said.

A week ago, a group of men wearing white robes staged a mock funeral close to The Beverly Hills gate and sales office.

The Shuen Wan Trust discussed the matter at a meeting in September. According to a copy of minutes obtained by the Post, councillor Cheng Chun-ping told the trust meeting that the tenant had approached him to rent the house, which he said he would use as a property office and store.

Mr Cheung had since met the tenant's solicitor asking the tenant to leave and offering the tenant $50,000 to move out. The offer was rejected, the meeting heard.

6. Site's history shrouded by a veil of mystery
KEVIN SINCLAIR, SCMP 13 December 2002

A statue linked with ceremonies for the dead on display outside the house.

Official documents note that the original grant for the village house, lease term and government rent cannot be traced in the land registry.

This usually means the land was held by villagers before the Japanese occupation and probably before the British gained control of the New Territories in 1898.

Records at the Tai Po Land Registry show that Lot No. 964, DD 26, was registered on September 9, 1989, in the names of five trustees: Chan Ying-sing, Chan Wan-fuk, Li Mau-shing, Chan Kun and Li Fung-yau. Inquiries to them were directed to a Shuen Wan village representative, Chan Ping, who is also a member of the Tai Po District Council.

He said Tai Po District Council vice-chairman Cheng Chun-ping introduced a Tai Po-based real estate businessman, Choi Chung-ching, to the trust and that a company with which Mr Choi is linked took out a two-year lease last August.

The clan spokesman refused to give the name of Mr Choi's firm. Government officials connected with the case said they could not identify the tenant because of privacy considerations.

Messages left for the tenant with a watchman at the clan house were not answered.

The matter was raised in the council's environment and works committee last month by councillor Chan Mei-tak.

7. New World restructuring receives go-ahead
ERIC NG, SCMP 13 December 2002

Minority shareholders of New World Development (NWD), New World Infrastructure (NWI) and Pacific Ports have approved the group's controversial HK$21.1 billion restructuring, despite analysts' criticisms of the deal.

At yesterday's extraordinary shareholders' meetings, none of NWD's or NWI's participating shareholders voted against the proposal, but six Pacific Ports shareholders out of about 30 present voted against all five resolutions related to the deal.

Garnering the consent of Pacific Ports shareholders was seen as the toughest part of the process, as the deal was criticised by analysts as a scheme to rescue heavily indebted NWI - and help NWD - at the expense of Pacific Ports.

HSBC analyst Maurien Yau called Pacific Ports a "debt repayment machine", saying the future financial priority of the enlarged Pacific Ports - to be called NWS Holdings - would be repaying HK$10 billion of debts to be inherited from the acquisitions.

DBS Vickers Securities and Merrill Lynch also advised shareholders to veto the deal.

Leslie Cheng Chi-peng, chief financial officer of New World Services (NWS), whose assets will be sold to Pacific Ports, said AIF Fund Management, which earlier expressed concerns about the deal, had voted in favour.

AIF managing director Andy Tse Po-shing, who voiced the concerns, could not be reached.

Under the restructuring, Pacific Ports will buy NWI's infrastructure assets for HK$10.2 billion and NWS for HK$10.9 billion.

NWS operates New World First Bus, financial-services and contracting busi nesses.

The deal will also see NWI left with nine loss-making technology and e-commerce investments, but leap from a net debt position of HK$8.64 billion to net cash of HK$746 million.

Pacific Ports has pledged to halve the debts of HK$10 billion in three years.
NWD managing director Henry Cheng Kar-shun yesterday said he was confident the debt reduction plan would be achieved, citing NWS' strong cash flow.

But analysts warned it would be difficult, given that earnings of the infrastructure projects sold to Pacific Ports were decreasing.

8. Downturn leaves Shui On in the red
SAMUEL YEUNG, SCMP 13 December 2002

Shui On Construction and Materials was badly affected by the depressed property and construction sectors in the six months to September, as it suffered a net loss of HK$17 million.

The company made a net profit of HK$72 million in the same period last year.
"The property and construction sectors are experiencing the most severe and extended downturn in Hong Kong's history," chairman Vincent Lo Hong-sui said yesterday.

"The drastic reduction of public and private sector works has further intensified the already very severe competition, and tender prices at negative margins were not uncommon."

Turnover dived 41 per cent to HK$1.18 billion from HK$2 billion in the same period last year.

Profit from the company's construction division plunged to HK$27 million from HK$66 million, executive director Raymond Wong Fook-lam said.

The profit from the construction division, however, was offset by losses from the concrete and construction materials trading divisions, he said.

The company was also hit by the stock market's downturn - it recorded a loss of more than HK$20 million from its listed securities investments.

Mr Lo said the adverse situation was unlikely to change soon.

"The suspension of the Home Ownership Scheme is expected to bring a further reduction in works for our construction division," he said.

At the end of last month, Shui On's gross and outstanding construction contracts on hand were worth HK$4.8 billion and HK$3.7 billion respectively, much lower than last year's HK$8.1 billion and HK$4.5 billion.

While the outlook for Hong Kong operations was uncertain, Shui On was pinning its hopes on China. Its Rui Hong Xin Cheng project in Shanghai was expected to begin yielding earnings in 2003-04, while cement operations in Guizhou were already contributing profits.