Plenty of land outside country parks could be used for development

Opponents of housing development in Hong Kong's cherished country parks are on the move.

About 1,000 people took to a Tai Tam hiking trail on Sunday in protest after development chief Paul Chan Mo-po floated the idea of allowing homes to be built in the previously untouchable rural havens.

But two veteran town planners have taken a different approach: digging out suitable sites outside the parks, as proof the government isn't trying hard enough. Investigations by the South China Morning Post have also turned up sites long earmarked for development which remain vacant.

"We do have land. It's just the government is taking the easy way out," said Ng Cho-nam, a professor of urban planning at the University of Hong Kong, who spent six years studying rural development plans for the Town Planning Board until 2010.

Professor Chau Kwai-cheong, a member of the Town Planning Board and a Chinese University academic, doesn't entirely agree.

"It's not easy at all," he said. "I don't think there would be less opposition if parks are downsized, compared to developing new towns on agricultural land."

But one thing they do agree on is that there is plentiful green belt land of lower ecological value than the parks that could easily be developed. They also spelt out conditions for the development of green belt sites, set up as a buffer between the urban areas and the countryside.