Minutes of 899 Meeting of the Town Planning Board Held on 9.11.2007 Present Permanent Secretary for Development
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Minutes of 899th Meeting of the Town Planning Board held on 9.11.2007 Present Permanent Secretary for Development (Planning and Lands) Chairman Mr. Raymond Young Dr. Peter K.K. Wong Vice-Chairman Mr. Michael K.C. Lai Dr. Greg C.Y. Wong Professor Nora F.Y. Tam Mr. Nelson W.Y. Chan Professor David Dudgeon Professor Peter R. Hills Mr. Tony C.N. Kan Dr. C.N. Ng Dr. Daniel B.M. To Mr. Stanley Y.F. Wong Mr. Alfred Donald Yap Ms. Sylvia S.F. Yau Mr. B.W. Chan - 2 - Mr. Walter K.L. Chan Mr. Y.K. Cheng Mr. Felix W. Fong Ms. Anna S.Y. Kwong Professor Paul K.S. Lam Dr. James C.W. Lau Ms. Starry W.K. Lee Mr. K.Y. Leung Assistant Director (2), Home Affairs Department Ms. Margaret Hsia Deputy Director of Environmental Protection Dr. Michael Chiu Director of Lands Miss Annie Tam Director of Planning Mrs. Ava Ng Deputy Director of Planning/District Secretary Miss Ophelia Y.S. Wong Absent with Apologies Ms. Carmen K.M. Chan Mr. David W.M. Chan Mr. Leslie H.C. Chen Dr. Lily Chiang Mr. Edmund K.H. Leung Professor N.K. Leung Professor Bernard V.W.F. Lim Ms. Maggie M.K. Chan Mr. Raymond Y.M. Chan - 3 - Principal Assistant Secretary (Transport) Transport and Housing Bureau Ms. Ava Chiu In Attendance Assistant Director of Planning/Board Mr. S. Lau Chief Town Planner/Town Planning Board Mr. C.T. Ling (a.m.) Ms. Brenda Au (p.m.) Senior Town Planner/Town Planning Board Miss Fiona S.Y. Lung (a.m.) Mr. Ivan M.K. Chung (p.m.) - 4 - Agenda Item 1 [Open Meeting] Confirmation of Minutes of the 898th Meeting held on 26.10.2007 [The meeting was conducted in Cantonese.] 1. The minutes of the 898th meeting held on 26.10.2007 was confirmed subject to the following amendments: (a) to amend the third and fourth sentences of paragraph 11 to read “…Mandatory Building Energy Codes and Extension of the Energy Efficiency Labelling Scheme were being pursued as pledged in the Chief Executive's 2007 Policy Address. Consideration of sustainability and energy saving should be incorporated in building and project design ....”; and (b) to amend the third sentence of paragraph 12 to read “…. The proposed MTR West Island Line and South Island Line would help encourage a modal shift away from the use of private cars. ....”. [Professor Paul K.S. Lam arrived to join the meeting at this point.] Agenda Item 2 [Open Meeting] Matters Arising [The meeting was conducted in Cantonese.] (i) Approval of Four Outline Zoning Plans (OZPs) 2. The Secretary reported that on 6.11.2007, the Chief Executive in Council approved the following four OZPs under section 9(1)(a) of the Town Planning Ordinance: (a) Draft Wan Chai OZP No. S/H5/24A (renumbered as S/H5/25); - 5 - (b) Draft Hung Hom OZP No. S/K9/19A (renumbered as S/K9/20); (c) Draft Tsz Wan Shan, Diamond Hill and San Po Kong OZP No. S/K11/21A (renumbered as S/K11/22); and (d) Draft Kai Tak OZP No. S/K22/1A (renumbered as S/K22/2). She said that the approval of the Kai Tak OZP was notified in the Gazette on 9.11.2007, while the other three OZPs would be notified in the Gazette on 16.11.2007. (ii) Town Planning Appeal Decision Received Town Planning Appeal No. 23 of 2006 Temporary Open Storage of Recyclable Card Boards, Compressed Plastic Bottles, Steel Wires and Wooden Panels for a Period of 3 Years in “Recreation” zone, Lots 495 and 496 (Part) and Adjoining Government Land in DD 125, Ha Tsuen, Yuen Long (Application No. A/YL-HT/428) 3. The Secretary reported that the appeal was in relation to an application (No. A/YL-HT/428) for temporary open storage of recyclable card boards, compressed plastic bottles, steel wires and wooden panels for a period of 3 years at a site zoned “Recreation” (“REC”) on the approved Ha Tsuen Outline Zoning Plan No. S/YL-HT/8. The appeal was heard by the Town Planning Appeal Board (TPAB) on 5.9.2007 and dismissed by the TPAB on 29.10.2007 based on the following considerations: (a) the appeal site was situated away from and to the west of San Wai Road and was in a “relatively undisturbed environment with greenery”. The Board would not normally approve applications for temporary open storage in the areas to the west of San Wai Road and no similar application had been approved in that area since the adoption of Town Planning Board Guidelines No. 13B in 2001. There were no special circumstances warranting different treatment of the present application; - 6 - (b) the Board and PlanD had drawn a clear distinction between the relatively green area in which the appeal site was situated and the heavily degraded areas on either side of San Wai Road. The Planning Authorities had consistently discouraged open storage use in the former area, which was in a relatively rural or green setting, by refusing planning permission and by taking enforcement action. On the other hand, the Board had not only granted temporary planning permission for open storage in the areas near San Wai Road but was planning to rezone that area to open storage; (c) in considering the application, the Board was guided by the latest TPB Guidelines No. 13D promulgated on 2.11.2005. Under the Guidelines, about three quarters of the appeal site fell within Category 3 and the rest within Category 2. Given the appeal site had received no previous planning approvals since the promulgation of TPB Guidelines No. 13B in 2001, the present application failed to engage the exception to the policy of non-approval in Category 3 areas. Moreover, there were outstanding objections from the Director of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Commissioner of Police (C of P) relating to noise pollution and traffic generation. The Board considered that the appellants had not submitted sufficient information to satisfy the DEP and the C of P that there would not be adverse environmental and traffic impacts. Such views remained unchanged at the appeal stage; and (d) under such circumstances, the TPAB could not see how the Board’s decision could be successfully impugned. Moreover, the appellants had not demonstrated any compelling reason why an exception should be made in respect of the present application by granting temporary planning permission. 4. The Secretary said that a copy each of the Summary of Appeal and the TPAB’s decision was dispatched to Members for reference on 7.11.2007. [Ms. Margaret Hsia arrived to join the meeting at this point.] - 7 - (iii) Appeals Statistics 5. The Secretary reported that as at 9.11.2007, 13 cases were yet to be heard by the TPAB. Details of the appeal statistics were as follows: Allowed : 20 Dismissed : 105 Abandoned/Withdrawn/Invalid : 125 Yet to be Heard : 13 Decision Outstanding : 4 _____________________________________________________ Total : 267 [Dr. Peter K.K. Wong, Ms. Sylvia S.F Yau, Mr. Felix W. Fong and Ms. Anna S.Y. Kwong arrived to join the meeting at this point.] Agenda Item 3 [Open Meeting (Presentation and Question Session only)] Review of Application No. A/H12/20 Proposed Minor Relaxation of Building Height Restriction in “Residential (Group C)2” zone, 6 Shiu Fai Terrace Mid-levels East (IL 2302B1 and Extension) (TPB Paper No. 7939) [The hearing was conducted in Cantonese and English.] 6. Ms. Christine Tse, District Planning Officer/Hong Kong (DPO/HK) of the Planning Department (PlanD) and the following applicant’s representatives were invited to the meeting at this point: Ms. Keren Seddon ) - 8 - Miss Cindy Tsang ) Mr. Gary Lui ) Applicant’s Representatives Ms. Quinly Wan ) Mr. Sidney Lam ) 7. The Chairman extended a welcome and explained briefly the procedures of the review hearing. The Chairman then invited Ms. Christine Tse to brief Members on the background to the application. Presentation and Question Session 8. With the aid of a powerpoint presentation, Ms. Christine Tse covered the following main points as detailed in the Paper: (a) background - the applicant sought planning permission for minor relaxation of building height (BH) restriction from 12 storeys over 1 storey of carports to 12 storeys over 2 storeys of podium for carparks and clubhouse in an area zoned “Residential (Group C) 2” (“R(C)2”) on the Mid-Levels East Outline Zoning Plan (OZP); (b) the Metro Planning Committee (MPC) decided to defer the consideration of the application on 25.5.2007, and requested the applicant to submit further information/justification on the proposed building height, address the concern on the tree felling proposals and demonstrate the visual impact of the proposed development from different viewing angles. Upon consideration of the further information submitted by the applicant, the MPC decided to reject the application on 27.7.2007 for reasons set out in paragraph 1.3 of the Paper; (c) further justifications for the review application submitted by the applicant were set out in paragraph 3 of the Paper; (d) to illustrate the visual impact of the proposed development, - 9 - photomontages were shown, with views taken from Tung Shan Terrace, Wong Nai Chung Road, Queen’s Road East, Stubbs Road, and junction of Queen’s Road East and Wong Nai Chung Road; (e) departmental comments – the departmental comments were summarized in paragraph 4 of the Paper. Concerned Government departments had no objection to or no adverse comment on the review application; (f) public comments – 25 public comments were received on the review application, which were summarized in paragraph 5 of the Paper.