Twin towers are rejected by Town Planning Board
But Gordon Wu may put a 93-floor hotel on the site in Wan Chai instead
Hopewell Holdings' plan to build a 60-storey, twin-tower hotel in Wan Chai was rejected by the Town Planning Board yesterday.
However, Hopewell boss Gordon Wu Ying-sheung threatened to challenge the ruling in the courts - or simply reactivate a plan to use the site to build what would be Hong Kong's tallest skyscraper.
The board said the twin-tower plan was incompatible with the neighbourhood's character, and would cause traffic congestion, kill too many trees and damage the aesthetics of Hong Kong Island's skyline. 'I will take legal action,' Sir Gordon said. 'In the beginning, I thought I should listen to public opinion, which was against constructing very tall buildings. The 97-storey plan is still effective, so I may just return to the old plan.'
Hopewell's plan to build the biggest hotel in Hong Kong dates back to the early 1980s. Over the past 20 years, it has submitted 12 plans to the Town Planning Board, eight of which have been rejected.
In 1994, the board approved a plan to build a 93-storey hotel. Although no actual construction has ever started, the plan is still effective and could be reactivated without seeking fresh town planning approval. Sir Gordon gave no explanation why he referred to the plan as 97-storeys high yesterday.
A spokeswoman for the board, Fiona Lung Siu-yuk, said: 'Normally speaking, an approved plan would lapse if no construction takes places after two years.
'In the Hopewell case, it submitted a building plan for the 93-storey hotel to the Buildings Department in 1994, and that building plan was approved. So theoretically, the hotel project has been started, and it has the right to build that approved hotel tower.'
Sally Emmerton, a member of the Kennedy Road Protection Group, said residents would continue to lobby the government to protect the low-density character of Kennedy Road.
Hopewell's twin-tower plan for the site near the existing Hopewell Centre would have included convention facilities, cinemas and shopping arcades. The 147,000 sq ft site is bordered by Ship Street and Kennedy Road. Ms Lung said that had the plan received the green light, the two towers would have blocked the view from Bowen Road. About 500 out of 570 trees on the site would have been felled.
The board also raised concerns over the definition of 'open space' in the plan. Nearly half of the promised 95,000 sq ft of so-called open space was actually in the hotel. Staircases, corridors, and a listed historic building - which was to have been turned into a cafe - were counted as open space by Hopewell. 'Conventional wisdom tells us open space is supposed to be uncovered,' Ms Lung said.
She said the board also questioned why Hopewell counted existing open space, such as the Ship Street playground, as one of the benefits of its proposal.
