Green groups fight developers a second time for popular retreat

Green groups on Friday voiced strong opposition against a controversial wetlands development project, which would see the development of around 1,600 housing units on Nam Sang Wai. Public consultation on the project ends on Friday.

The project was initiated by Kleener Investment Limited, a company jointly owned by Kwong Hing Investment Corporation and Henderson Land Development Company Limited, one of city's biggest developers.

The wetland is a favorite recreational area among people in Hong Kong. It is also home to about 130 species of birds, 54 of which are seen as having importance for conservation. Kleener Investment's proposal was rejected in December, 2010 by the Town Planning Board after it met with objections from green groups and the public. The developer, later, made minor adjustments to the plan and brought it forward to the board for a second consideration.

The new proposal calls for construction of five, 17-story buildings, offering 640 housing units, down from the six 13-story buildings in the original plan. In the meantime, the developer claimed that the new proposal will reduce the wetland loss from 5 hectares to 3 hectares, by altering existing ponds or removing banks between ponds. In the meantime, it offered to provide half of the 640 housing units to the Home Ownership Scheme. On the other hand, the developer proposes to construct 960 three-story townhouses.

The development project would involve an area of 178 hectares, of which 82 hectares are government lands on the south part of Nam Sang Wai, covering around 50 hectares, an area three times the size of Victoria Park.

Though the plan will reserve the Lut Chau together with the north of Nam Sang Wai, green groups found it incredible that the developer claimed the project could improve the overall ecological value of the wetland by 30 percent.

More than 300 submissions, most of them objections, have been received by the Town Planning Board.

The planning guidelines stipulated that any development on the wetland should be subject to the principle of no net loss of wetland.

Green Sense issued a statement on Thursday, saying the revised proposal will incur a loss of wetland and thus, fails to comply with the overriding principle.

The developer has begun promoting its plan since June, when reporters and conservationists were invited to a pitch hosted by surveyor Wan Man-yee.

Roy Tam Hoi-pong, president of Green Sense, said the developer's argument that "abandoned farmland will be turned into landfills" was fundamentally wrong, because it was the land owners' duty to manage their lands properly. "Fish farming ended since they acquired the land. That's why," said Tam.

He said there is virtually no room for green groups to compromise on Nam Sang Wai. "It is the largest piece of reed bed in Hong Kong and the northern portion of the plot lies within the Ramsar Site," he said. "That place is just very very difficult. No development is suitable there."

While Tam would have welcomed the proposal to build subsidized housing on privately owned land, he said the premise is that that land should have low ecological value.

A petition by the Local Research Community has referred several hundred opposition letters to the Town Planning Board.

Chan Kim-ching, a researcher for the organization, said the key question for the city was the absence of a line differentiating countryside and urbanization.

"It is unhealthy that the developers are permitted to apply for rezoning again and again, turning more rural lands into urban developments," said Chan.

Despite lukewarm response among the mainstream media in the second battle, Tam was optimistic that the effort will pay off, thanks to the enthusiastic response indicated in the social networks. Chan Kim-ching noted that many conservationists have been overwhelmed by the controversy over northeast development and artificial beach, but he also felt the December meeting will most likely be postponed.

The board will discuss the proposal on Dec 7.

You may contact the writers through stushadow@chinadailyhk.com