With the redevelopment of Shanghai Street, where the couple have an 800 sq ft flat in an old tenement, due to start in the next couple years, it is unlikely to be fulfilled.

The new disruption comes a decade after the family were moved from their home in Hong Lok Street, known as Bird Street. Now, the elderly couple want to stay in the area they're familiar with.

After selling vegetables and fruit in the wet market for almost half a century, they go there several times a day to shop and meet old friends. 'I hope that if we have to move, we can find another place in the neighbourhood so we can continue to visit our friends,' Ko said.

The couple's situation highlights a criticism often made of the authority - that it disrupts or destroys communities without giving due concern to the people who live and work there. Protests, sometimes violent, have occurred over issues including unfair compensation, forced eviction, destruction of social networks, failure to conserve old buildings and maximisation of building density that favours developers.

But the government and the authority say that many old areas in the city urgently need to be revitalised or redeveloped. Among about 40,000 private buildings in Hong Kong, nearly 10 per cent are more than 50 years old. About 600 come to the end of their 50-year lifespans every year, but only about 150 buildings are demolished and redeveloped annually.

The authority faces a difficult task in balancing competing interests, including the need to redevelop old and sometimes unsafe buildings, a desire to preserve heritage, the concerns of residents who do not wish to move, and those who hold out for more compensation.

In the case of Shanghai Street, the authority, which has in the past built expensive high-rises in redeveloped areas, plans to preserve the buildings but not the community. It has proposed that the row of tenements - recognised as grade three historic by the Antiquities and Monuments Office - be converted into restaurants and tea houses, with businesses allowed to return if they fit the theme of 'daily necessities'. But residents must go.

'They completely miss the point,' said activist Chan King-fai, who has been monitoring the authority's work for the past six years. 'The problem is they treat old districts as tumours. They do not understand the relationship the people have with the land, whether they live or work there, or how they use the place.'

In response to such criticism, the Development Bureau in July 2008 launched a review of the strategy that guides the authority's work. The last stage of public consultation ended this year and a government-appointed steering committee will prepare a report by year's end.

So far, the review suggests 'urban renewal forums' be set up in different districts to plan the scope and strategy of renewal, including where to redevelop, rehabilitate, preserve and beautify. Each forum would be chaired by a professional with a background in renewal issues. Members appointed by the government will comprise district councillors and professionals, representatives of non-governmental organisations providing services in the district, business associations, representatives of the authority and officials.

The review also suggests the authority could act as a facilitator. Once owners agree to a redevelopment, the authority will help them find a developer. It will set out guidelines, including development density, height limits and compensation options.

'The problem with the authority is that it is a public body,' a person closely involved with the review said. 'If it takes up redevelopment on its own, it faces the accusation that it is intervening the market. If it works with developers, it is accused of colluding with the developers. So what is left is the facilitator role.'

URA chairman Barry Cheung Chun-yuen said recently that elderly people affected by redevelopment may be able to resettle in the same district. He said redevelopment would be conducted on a district basis, giving the authority more flexibility. The authority could identity government sites, for example, to build rehousing blocks to house the elderly, he said. People who were rehoused must pay for the flat, but the authority has yet to work out compensation.

The authority is also preparing a flat-for-flat option for other residents. They can choose a new flat in the development instead of cash. As the value of a new flat will be much higher than the compensation, residents will be required to pay the difference. But the same concept is difficult to work out for shops. Winnie So Chui-ying, principal assistant secretary for development, said yesterday at an urban renewal strategy review conference with residents that 400 to 600 sq ft flats on lower floors would be reserved for people who choose flat-for-flat compensation. The flats will be sold at the same prices regardless of view and floor.

Most of the 20 residents and concern group representatives at the meeting asked why the government ruled out shop-for-shop compensation while allowing flat-for-flat. They also said members of district forums should be elected by the public.

But Thomas Chow Tat-ming, permanent secretary for development, rejected the call, saying the forums were representative since district councillors would be included. 'Any direct election will politicise urban renewal as a social issue,' he said.

Chan Kim-ching, one of the activists at the forum, said the new model would give developers a lot of leeway. 'What happens when a developer owns 50 per cent of an old building? Can it ask the URA to join and redevelop since it has a big share?'

Heritage activist John Batten, who has been opposing redevelopment projects in Central, believes conflict over compensation will continue. 'It is fair for someone who has bought a property to think they are going to live there the rest of their life.'

Meanwhile, if Ko, in Shanghai Street, ever wants to revisit his former home in Bird Street, he will have difficulty finding it. The space where he, his wife and their six children once lived is part of the H&M boutique in Langham Place, the glittering tower that now dominates the area.