This Thursday (August 19), the local research agency and the Public Professional Alliance issued a "renewal" plan, suggesting to the government to develop six to more than ten floors in 14 land clusters in the New Territories, including "brownfields" and "Dingdi". For rural housing and home ownership, the Development Bureau responded by saying that it is open to the recycling of "brownfields" outside the development area. It also pointed out that the authorities will use the "Land Sharing Pilot Scheme" to supplement private land planning for specific public uses.
However, so far, the "Land Sharing Pilot Scheme" has actually received only three applications, and none of them has been officially approved.
Moreover, the plan requires developers to actively apply, so the government is bound to be in a passive role in the plan. In addition, when developers choose the land for application, they should normally only give priority to their own interests, so the implementation may not be beneficial to the government's collection. Land development of public housing, especially for scattered "brownfields", this restriction is even more deadly.
Leading the development and avoiding the choice of land resumption
The Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor stated in his 2019 Policy Address that he would speed up planning, and then use the Land Resumption Ordinance and other applicable regulations to reclaim private land to develop public housing, including about 450 hectares "may have development potential," However, it is not included in new development areas or other development projects, and most of them are privately owned New Territories brownfields." From the perspective of making good use of "brownfields," this method of using public power to retake land for development is of course the most effective.
Although the authorities have achieved certain results in the expropriation of private land in recent years, people feel that there is still room for improvement.
For example, judging from the fact that the government has always clung to the "Land Sharing Pilot Plan", it will inevitably lead to outside doubts that it is an excuse for rationalizing selective land resumption; and Chen Maobo earlier proposed to amend the "Urban Planning The Regulations speed up the examination and approval process, and there is no lack of diversion to avoid the suspicion of land collection responsibility.
Follow up with social suggestions and actively create land
Since civil organizations have proposed specific locations for development, the government should respond more actively and examine whether the relevant areas really have development potential, instead of continuing to insist on prejudices or using official articles to make false responses.
In addition to the "brownfield" plot proposed by the local research institute this time, there were earlier voices that the development restrictions on the "wetland conservation area" could be relaxed, but the Secretary for Development, Wong Wai Lun, was only willing to call it the "wetland conservation area." Development is not prohibited, and strictly speaking, there is no direct response to relevant suggestions at all.
Carrie Lam told reporters before the executive meeting on July 20: "Hong Kong must do something, and the "ruler" not only refers to the SAR government, but also includes legislators and the general public, especially on housing issues. To truly "open up the world" to create land requires the mobilization of the whole society." Regardless of whether there is an intention to shirk responsibility behind these remarks, social media and non-governmental organizations in Japan and Hong Kong have indeed come up with a lot of suggestions on this issue, and a group of government officials are obviously also going to start. Take your own responsibility and stop looking for excuses to cover up your many omissions.
Land-sharing has committed a problem with land-sharing. Land-sharing is not as ideal as it should be. The government’s bureaucracy tolerates brownfield expansion.