Sai Wan is just one of about 20 unzoned pockets of agricultural or village land in or bordering the Sai Kung Country Parks in the limelight these days. Although the construction on this private land is legal, a public and political outcry has dropped the issue of the lack of planning controls on such land and the sensitive nature of development in ecologically valuable areas right into the government’s lap. At the same time, it may force certain government departments to take action over the illegal destruction of adjacent government land and the transport of equipment through country park land without permits.
Another 34 unzoned sites exist along the Tolo Channel and on Lantau Island, yet we know little about them at present. Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) is apparently reluctant to publish any information on such sites, including their size or ownership.
Three Sai Kung sites about which there is some information are To Kwa Peng, Lai Chi Chong and Hoi Ha.
Land Registry records say that over 40 plots of land in To Kwa Peng, an abandoned village at the southern end of Long Harbour enclosed by the Sai Kung East Country Park, were bought in 2008 for $800,000 by Sai Kung District Councillor, Lau King-for. Early this year, some plots were transferred to other individuals. As reported in Explore in May 2009,clearance work at the site, only accessible by a steep hiking path, was done in early 2009, apparently prior to permission being granted and with equipment being brought in via the small pier and an illegal road created through country park land. Applications to build 80 “small houses”, which are the right of male indigenous villagers, have been received by the Lands Department (LD) and permission granted for 16 so far. How those owners would get to their homes, no one knows. Further work has been halted and LD gave the contractor a permit to remove heavy equipment by sea, but there has been no action on the restoration of excavated government land nearby yet.
Another pocket of unzoned land surrounded by the Sai Kung West Country Park is Lai Chi Chong. Over 40 plots of mostly agricultural land, totalling 100,000 square feet, in this abandoned village were bought by a company called Maxland (Asia), which is controlled by a Heung Yee Kuk councillor. The foreshore area of volcanic ash sedimentary rock near the Lai Chi Chong pier is, according the Hong Kong Geopark website, is “an ideal location for geological study” and an area “displaying very distinctive foldings, faults and bedding structure”. So far, no applications to the Lands Department to change the land use have been received, so it’s anyone’s guess what is being planned.
Meanwhile, on the northern tip of Sai Kung peninsula, facing the Hoi Ha Marine Reserve, at least 90 lots of land in Hoi Ha Village originally bought by private developer Grandbo may have been transferred, for a handsome profit, to a company named Asia Financial Asset Investment. Plans for a 44-house development straddling the village stream have raised alarm bells.
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