Concerted efforts needed to tackle housing problem
Updated: 2016-10-03 11:40
(HK Edition)
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Most Hong Kong residents probably were not aware of the Wang Chau housing project until recently. The project began to attract public attention when a newly elected legislator feared for his life after receiving threats. Since the police subsequently provided high-profile protection, the public perception is that the threat might actually be credible. The rule of law is a value we all hold dear in Hong Kong. It is absolutely unacceptable for legislators and other public servants to be threatened with violence. Unfortunately, there have been more and more such incidents recently.
The returning officers of the recent Legislative Council elections were threatened because of their decision to disqualify some candidates. Legislators occasionally received threatening letters along with razors blades. Some police officers' personal information, such as home addresses, photos and details of their families, was published online along with hostile messages during the "Occupy Central" movement. This alarming trend is getting worse as it is hard to locate the perpetrators and the punishments are not severe. Furthermore, some netizens glorified those who threaten civil servants and law enforcement officers. The media provided widespread headline coverage on the recent instance of intimidation over the Wang Chau project, but those involving civil servants and the police in the past were scantly reported.
It is widely believed that the reason why the newly elected legislator was threatened was for his outspoken view on rural land development, specifically the Wang Chau development plan. As the press dug deeper, it turned out that land administrators had held informal meetings with district and rural leaders to seek their views prior to launching public consultations. Although some criticized this practice as secretive, it is actually a common government practice since the colonial era. After all, to ensure any policy decision would not meet with intense opposition immediately after its publication, it was prudent for the authorities to hold discussions with the relevant stakeholders first.
It was also revealed that the Chief Executive personally led a working group on the Wang Chau development and made the decision to scale back the public housing project from 17,000 units to 4,000 units. With the revelation that the CE was involved in the decision-making process, public attention on Wang Chau has increased drastically. Despite the fact the government has provided and explained details of the project in a press conference, new revelations continued to surface. Opposition legislators will no doubt keep pressing the issue after LegCo starts its new session in October.
The Wang Chau development plan is just one of several initiated by the current administration to increase residential land supply. Other major development projects such as North East New Territories New Development Areas, Hung Shui Kiu New Development Area, and Tung Chung East, as well as many smaller development projects, have also met with intense opposition from affected residents, concern groups, district leaders and some legislators. It is understandable that existing homeowners would like to have as many parks and recreational facilities as possible in their neighborhoods; no one would like to have more new residential buildings built in their neighborhood, be it private or public housing; and people would particularly hate to see amenities such as garbage depots, graveyards, elderly homes and mobile phone masts in their neighborhood. And indeed, some vacant land plots are unsuitable for development due to traffic and environmental constraints.
It should be noted that Hong Kong has ample undeveloped land, mainly reserved as country parks. If some portions of country parks were to be rezoned for development, relevant ordinances would have to be amended by LegCo. So far, no administration has had the political courage to initiate such moves. The New Territories, especially the Yuen Long area, has a lot of leveled land ready for development. Passengers of the MTR West Rail Line can see huge tracts of land on both sides of the rail tracks. If these land parcels were to be developed at the same population density as Tseung Kwan O, a million people could possibly live there. Currently, these areas mainly comprise three-story village houses and brownfields that are used for warehouses, recycling facilities, container yards and parking lots for lorries.
The lawful traditional rights and interests of the indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories are protected by Article 40 of the Basic Law and it is extremely difficult for the government to modify them. The government has been studying how to utilize brownfield land for years, but to no avail. Indeed, the logistics industry is one of the key pillars of Hong Kong's economy and they need to be relocated should brownfield land be developed for residential use. The simplest way is to build multi-story industrial warehouses suitable for trucks to load cargo at. Some of these buildings have been operating near the container port in Kwai Chung for years; it is hard to understand what technical difficulties could have hindered the relocation of these logistical operations from brownfields.
All these constraints clearly demonstrate the government's difficulty in finding suitable land for development in the current political atmosphere. Every member of the community should share the burden of land scarcity. But the government should lead the way by drafting better development plans that alleviate most if not all traffic and environmental impacts. It also needs to formulate a comprehensive brownfield policy.
(HK Edition 10/03/2016 page6)