THE Town Planning Board is set to approve controversial government proposals in the next few days to limit the size of buildings in Kowloon even though it has received more than 300 objections from property experts. The Executive Council is expected to approve the board's decision by the end of the month, clearing the way for a blanket reduction in plot ratios, expected to cost developers about $100 billion in lost office and apartment rental income. The move has caused dismay among surveyors and architects, prompting one leading member of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors to accuse the Government of driving a coach and horses through the Town Planning Ordinance. 'The 300 objectors can't all be wrong, but everything has been overruled,' said the surveyors' representative who co-ordinated the institute's objections, Trevor Farnworth. The board is meant to be independent but is chaired by Peter Pun Kwok-shing, the Director of Planning, whose department is backing the changes. A senior member of the Town Planning Board said none of the objections would be accepted, even though several board members were worried by the Draconian way the proposal had been pushed through. The Institute of Surveyors is supported by the Hong Kong Institute of Planners and the Hong Kong Institute of Architects. Mr Farnworth said the Government had deceived the public, boosted its own land sales revenue and won 'back door' approval for the massive 300-hectare southeast Kowloon reclamation at Kai Tak. The Government admits it will generate nearly $122 billion in land sales revenue from the reclamation and airport redevelopment. 'If Kai Tak was in private ownership, one of the first things a developer would have to do is submit an outline plan covering land use, the size of the new city and the new road links to the Town Planing Board for approval,' Mr Farnworth said. Unless the developer could show road and mass-transit links could cope, the plan would be rejected. But the Institute of Surveyors said the Government had pre-empted a decision on the southeast Kowloon reclamation, assuming the scheme would go-ahead, to introduce a blanket reduction in plot ratios for the whole of Kowloon. By giving the green light to the new plot ratios, the board had by default approved the southeast Kowloon reclamation, the surveyors said. Mr Farnworth said: 'The Town Planning Board has never been given the opportunity of deciding on the reclamation before revising the plot ratios. This is a back-door agreement to the reclamation.' Plot ratios relate the area of the site to the size of the building. So the higher the plot ratio, the bigger the building. The new figures limit apartment buildings to a 6.5 plot ratio, where previously developers could go up to 10. The changes, which also hit office and commercial buildings, have torpedoed any incentive for property companies for urban renewal schemes, Mr Farnworth said. 'The Government has also avoided standard procedures telling the public what is happening. In other words they have a hidden agenda to boost their land revenues.' Mr Farnworth believed this was to hide the financial benefit of the scheme from the public. Planners have proposed a new city for 285,000 people, equal to 14 per cent of the population of Kowloon and bigger than Tai Po. But apart from two new roads, including an east-west link which will become the main highway between Kowloon and Tseung Kwan O, the HKIS said very little thought had been given to transport infrastructure. According to the present plans there is no provision to improve roads or mass transit services in adjacent areas.
