Plans Ditched...
...for now
Hang Hau Wing Lung Road residents found out recently that it does pay to take a stand on an issue they believe in when two highly contentious applications to the Town Planning Board were withdrawn within the space of a week.
The first – an application detailed in ESK December 2007 (A/SK-CWBN/3) for six houses to be built on stilts over top of a beautiful wetland overlooking Pan Long Wan (accessible from Hang Hau Wing Lung Road) – was withdrawn by the applicant, Sea Treasures Limited, after the Town Planning Board (TPB) received 187 comments. A scan of the comments on display at the TPB showed that all but one were negative.
The second, more recent, application (A/SK-CWBN/9) was withdrawn immediately following the deadline for comments on the application for a “tent camping ground”. The site was exactly the same site on which a large swath of land was cleared of trees and an illegal road, utilities and an illegal structure (complete with furniture) were installed over a year ago on land zoned “Conservation Area” (“CA”). At that time, the Planning Department posted a warning stating that this was an illegal development and that the perpetrators were liable for a HK$500,000 fine and the Lands Dept. (LD) blocked the illegal road with a cement barrier.
The proposed road to the campground matches exactly the illegal road already created from Wing Lung Road to the site and the “proposed” one story structure seems uncannily like the actual illegal residence already erected on the site.
Despite the LD’s assurance last year that the CLP request to install earthing poles down Wing Lung Road was simply an underground system upgrade – there are clearly above-ground poles sitting ready to supply power to the campsite. Water pipes installed at the site last year have not yet been hooked up to the main water supply across Wing Lung Road Water because of residents’ complaints in late 2006 but, if this application was to receive approval – the hook-up would be completed and the applicant’s single toilet will be installed.
According to residents, this utility overkill suggests that the developer is considering a further step in the application process. If the “Tent Camping Ground” were to be approved – with the utilities in place, it would be much easier to apply for rezoning of the land from “CA” to Residential.
The applicant justified his application by saying that he is “a nature lover” and he hopes to “cultivate awareness of environmental protection”. As residents told Explore: “somehow a person who has killed hundreds of trees illegally and decimated Conservation Land without authorization, driving wildlife out of the area and endangering their natural habitat doesn’t sound like a nature lover”!
Both applicants have yielded to public pressure. But – will they reappear at a later date and what will their plans be at that point? We’ll just have to wait and see.