Minutes of 872nd Meeting of the Town Planning Board held on 24.11.2006 Present Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Planning and Lands) Chairperson Mrs. Rita Lau 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 Mr. David W.M. Chan Mr. Leslie H.C. Chen Dr. Lily Chiang Professor Peter R. Hills Mr. Tony C.N. Kan Mr. Edmund K.H. Leung Dr. C.N. Ng Dr. Daniel B.M. To Mr. Stanley Y.F. Wong Ms. Sylvia S.F. Yau Mr. B.W. Chan Mr. Walter K.L. Chan - 2 - Ms. Maggie M.K. Chan Mr. Raymond Y.M. Chan Mr. Felix W. Fong Ms. Anna S.Y. Kwong Dr. James C.W. Lau Ms. Starry W.K. Lee Mr. K.Y. Leung Principal Assistant Secretary (Transport) Environment, Transport and Works Bureau Ms. Ava Chiu Assistant Director (2), Home Affairs Department Ms. Margaret Hsia Director of Environmental Protection Dr. Michael Chiu Director of Planning Mrs. Ava S.Y. Ng Deputy Director of Planning/District Secretary Miss Ophelia Y.S. Wong Absent with Apologies Ms. Carmen K.M. Chan Professor David Dudgeon Professor N.K. Leung Professor Bernard V.W.F. Lim Mr. Alfred Donald Yap Mr. Y.K. Cheng Professor Paul K.S. Lam Director of Lands Mr. Patrick L.C. Lau In Attendance - 3 - Assistant Director of Planning/Board Mr. S. Lau Chief Town Planner/Town Planning Board Ms. Jacinta K.C. Woo Town Planner/Town Planning Board Ms. Endless S.P. Kong - 4 - Agenda Item 1 (Open Meeting) Confirmation of Minutes of the 871st Meeting held on 10.11.2006 1. The minutes of the 871st meeting held on 10.11.2006 were confirmed without amendment. Agenda Item 2 Matters Arising (Open Meeting) (i) Town Planning Appeal Received Temporary Vehicle Repair Workshop for a Period of 3 Years in “Undetermined” and “Village Type Development” zones, Lots 1335(Part), 1548(Part), 1550A(Part), 1550B, 1551(Part) and 1552(Part) in DD 119, Tong Yan San Tsuen, Yuen Long (Application No. A/YL-TYST/319) 2. The Secretary said that an appeal against the decision of the Board to reject on review an application for a temporary vehicle repair workshop for a period of 3 years on a site zoned partly “Undetermined” and partly “Village Type Development” (“V”) on the approved Tong Yan San Tsuen Outline Zoning Plan No. S/YL-TYST/10 was received by the Town Planning Appeal Board (TPAB) on 17.11.2006. The review application was rejected by the Board on 8.9.2006 mainly on the grounds that the proposed development was not in line with the planning intention of the “V” zone; no strong justification had been given in the submission for a departure from the planning intention, even on a temporary basis; and there was insufficient information in the submission to demonstrate that the development would not generate adverse environmental, drainage and traffic impacts on the surrounding areas. The hearing date of the appeal was yet to be fixed. The Secretariat would represent the Board in the TPAB proceedings. - 5 - (ii) Appeal Statistics 3. The Secretary said that as at 24.11.2006, 29 cases were yet to be heard by the TPAB. Details of the appeal statistics were as follows: Allowed : 17 Dismissed : 87 Abandoned/Withdrawn/Invalid : 119 Yet to be Heard : 29 Decision Outstanding : 4 Total : 256 (iii) Town Planning Board Annual Site Visit 4. The Secretary reminded Members that the Town Planning Board Annual Site Visit to visit the Frontier Closed Areas and Sha Lo Tung would be held on 29.11.2006. Detailed itinerary would be sent to Members shortly. (iv) Gazette of the Draft Kai Tak Outline Zoning Plan No. S/K22/1 5. The Secretary said that on 10.11.2006, the Board agreed that the draft Kai Tak Outline Zoning Plan (OZP) No. S/K22/A was suitable for publication under section 5 of the Town Planning Ordinance subject to fine-tuning of the plan, and its Notes and Explanatory Statement (ES). Textual amendments had subsequently been made to the Notes and ES. Opportunity had also been taken to address the editorial and consistency aspects of these documents. The revised Notes and ES were circulated to Members on 22.11.2006. The draft Kai Tak OZP No. S/K22/1 was gazetted on 24.11.2006 under section 5 of the Town Planning Ordinance. [Dr. C.N. Ng arrived to join the meeting at this point.] - 6 - Sha Tin, Tai Po and North District Agenda Item 3 [Open meeting (Presentation and Question Session Only)] Review of Application No. A/NE-LT/274-1 Proposed House (New Territories Exempted House (NTEH) – Small House) in “Agriculture” and “Village Type Development” zones, Lot 578G in DD 8, Ma Po Mei Village, Lam Tsuen, Tai Po (TPB Paper No. 7717) [The hearing was conducted in Cantonese.] Presentation and Question Session 6. Members noted that Mr. Sham Sai-keung, the applicant, had just informed the Secretariat that he would not attend the review hearing. The Board agreed to proceed with the hearing in the absence of the applicant. 7. Mr. W.K. Hui, District Planning Officer/Sha Tin, Tai Po and North of the Planning Department (PlanD) was invited to the meeting at this point. 8. The Chairperson extended a welcome and explained briefly the procedures of the review hearing. The Chairperson then invited the PlanD’s representative to brief Members on the background to the application. [Mr. Tony C.N. Kan arrived to join the meeting at this point.] 9. Mr. W.K. Hui did so as detailed in the Paper and covered the following main aspects: (a) the original application for the proposed Small House was approved by the Rural and New Town Planning Committee (RNTPC) on 23.8.2002 and the planning permission was valid until 23.8.2006; - 7 - (b) a section 16A(2) application to extend the time for commencement of the approved Small House for 4 years until 23.8.2010 was approved by the Director of Planning under the delegated authority of the Board subject to the same approval condition (c) as stipulated in the previous approval and the applicant was also advised of the same advisory clause (c); (c) the written representation submitted by the applicant at Annexes E and F of the Paper and major justifications put forth in support of the review application as detailed in paragraph 3.1 of the Paper; (d) subjects of review – although the applicant had not stated clearly the subjects of review, judging from his grievances on the requirement in relation to the construction of the public sewers, it was believed that the applicant was in effect seeking a review on approval condition (c) (i.e. the connection of the foul water drainage system to public sewers to the satisfaction of the Director of Water Supplies or of the Board) and advisory clause (c) (i.e. the construction of the proposed Small House should only commence after the completion of the sewerage programme). The applicant also expressed dissatisfaction on the need to apply for further extension of the planning approval as he was informed that submission of a fresh application would be required for the development if it could not commence before the expiry of the extended planning permission; (e) departmental comments – the Water Supplies Department (WSD) would only support the proposed Small House if approval condition (c) and all the advisory clauses were fully complied with. The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) had no objection to the application provided that the proposed Small House would only be occupied when the public sewer was available and its discharge would be connected to the public sewer after completion of the sewerage system. The proposed septic tank outside the application site was not supported due to the possible land, maintenance and connection problems. The Drainage Services Department advised that the sewerage project was only included in Category B in October 2005 for implementation and it was expected to start in end 2008 for completion in - 8 - end 2013; and (f) PlanD’s views – the review application was not supported as approval condition (c) was considered necessary to ensure that the sewage of the proposed Small House would be disposed of through the planned sewers. It should be noted that in view of grave concerns on the water pollution problems in the Water Gathering Grounds (WGG) in the Lam Tsuen and Kau Lung Hang areas as previously raised by the EPD and WSD, all approved planning applications for NTEHs/Small Houses in these two areas were subject to the same approval condition since August 2002. 10. Members sought clarifications on the followings: (a) the number of the approved Small House developments that would be affected by the delay of the construction of the public sewers; (b) the zoning of the application site and the proposed septic tank; (c) the distance between the application site and the proposed septic tank and how far were they from the river and the planned public sewer; (d) whether WSD had provided any information on the current water quality in Lam Tsuen area; and (e) the decisions of the Town Planning Appeal Board (TPAB) allowing for similar applications and the difference between them and the subject application. 11. Mr. W.K. Hui responded as follows: (a) more than 40 approved Small House developments would be affected by the delay of the construction of the public sewers as 17 and 24 planning applications in Kau Lung Hang and Lam Tsuen respectively had been approved with the same approval condition (c) imposed; - 9 - (b) the application site was zoned partly “Agriculture” and partly “Village Type Development” (“V”) on the Lam Tsuen Outline Zoning Plan while the proposed septic tank, which was located outside the application site, fell within an area zoned “V”; (c) the application site and septic tank were located about 20m and 30m away from Lam Tsuen River respectively.