What Hong Kong lacks is the will of officials to solve problems

The government has repeatedly claimed that there is a shortage of land and housing, but in the face of private demands to build housing on the entire 172-hectare Fanling Golf Course site, the government has repeatedly rebuffed. It will be even worse than Queens Mountain Village.

The inequitable land planning revealed in the process will only perpetuate the inequity in the housing of citizens and will not help improve the living environment of Hong Kong people.

The Civil Engineering and Development Department and the Planning Office submitted a document to the North District Council last Friday (20th), proposing that the 9.5-hectare golf course site be zoned for high-density residential use in the future.

After deducting one hectare for the construction of special schools, about 12,000 public housing units will be built in the remaining area, accommodating 33,600 people, and it is expected to be completed in 2029.

Unit density is not good for living

When the government initially assessed the development potential of the land, it only said that 32 hectares of land could provide about 4,600 residential units and 840 employment opportunities.

In the latest plan, the number of units has greatly increased, but the unit density of the land has also increased significantly.

In terms of the ratio of land use to units, the density of public housing at the golf course is higher than that of the Queen's Hill site.

More than 120,000 public housing units have been completed in Queen's Hill Village and Shan Lai Court, covering an area of ​​more than 13 hectares, with an average of about 900 units per hectare.

Even if the government proposes to build an additional 4,000 units of 4.17 hectares near Queen's Hill Village, the combined result is not as dense as golf course projects.

At present, the residents of Queen's Hill have already suffered from insufficient bus lines and traffic congestion. The public housing residents of the golf course will have a great chance to experience it together in the future.

The land lease of the 172-hectare Fanling Golf Course expired on August 31 this year.

The authorities stated that after three years, 32 hectares of land will "return to the government", but if the remaining 140 hectares are approved for renewal, the government will levy reduced land prices from July 2027.

(File photo/Photo by Liang Pengwei)

The Government explained that the decision on the development scale of the golf course was made because the land to the south of the site contains forests and animal habitats of high ecological value, which are suitable for conservation, public recreation and sports purposes.

Some NGOs immediately questioned the government's double standards. For example, the government proposed a one-to-one compensation for the felled trees and agarwood in the Queen's Hill New Development Area, and increased the plot ratio in the high wetland buffer zone, but chose to protect the Fanling Golf Course. ecology.

Of course, housing development cannot be done as it should, with no regard for the ecological environment, but the government also has to work hard to find alternatives, such as relocating some animals and plants to live nearby, or speeding up the reclamation of Gao Ting Di’s land on the other side of Fan Kam Highway, it is estimated that A considerable part of the conservation value is similar to the current development area, and housing and community facilities can be combined.

Idle land and houses are not used properly and the grassroots suffer deeply

Since the land debate in 2018, the government has been resisting the housing plan at Fanling Golf Course, but the reasons are not convincing.

To promote golf, players and enthusiasts can go to other local or overseas golf courses to practice.

The golf course is flat land, which is suitable for large-scale housing construction in a short period of time to meet the urgent housing needs of the middle and lower classes.

The government is still desperate for words, and even renews its 140-hectare land with a nominal rent of 1,000 yuan until 2027. Apart from protecting the recreational rights of a few political and business elite members, there is really no better reason to explain it.

Chen Weixiong, a member of the Connection Concerning Resettlement Policy, said that vacant public housing units are precious resources and should be put to good use, urging them to be converted into transit housing.

(Photo by Mo Jiawen)

The public housing development area of ​​the golf course has been shrinking again and again, and the citizens waiting to go upstairs in the Housing Department's Temporary Shelter Center are undoubtedly deeply impressed.

The facilities there are even worse than that of public housing estates, and the living environment is full of rodents and insects, but it has been neglected.

A concern group held a press conference on Sunday (22nd) and found that there are more than 840 vacant public housing units in public housing estates over 40 years old. Therefore, they asked the Housing Authority to renovate the units and then house residents of the shelters.

If Hong Kong's public housing units are plentiful, they should be entitled to regular public housing units earlier, so they don't have to wander between shelters, transit houses and converted public housing.

Hong Kong has never been short of land, and even built public housing is not without vacancies, but the authorities often do not know how to make good use of it.

Both the current Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor government and the next Lee Ka-chao government are also talking about the northern metropolitan area and the vision of Lantau tomorrow to solve the land and housing problem, but Hong Kong now has a piece of land that can be built in the short term. Use to solve the deep-seated contradictions in society.

The government cannot be turned down by private HOS tenants as the main public housing. The waiting list for public housing has not peaked. The government must lead the development.