Critics of waterfront plan ask: what about Tamar?
The government yesterday unveiled its concept plan for the Central to Wan Chai waterfront, with tree-lined promenades, lawns and outdoor entertainment areas.
But the design to create a 'vibrant green harbourfront' was dismissed by critics who demanded thorough public consultation on the plan, as well as on the Tamar project for the new government headquarters that lawmakers are expected to approve today.
The Planning Department's model for the harbourfront features a 1.4km promenade and 11 hectares of open space. Detailed designs for the Tamar project are not included, only basic representations of the buildings and a lawn-covered civic square.
Unveiling the model, Director of Planning Bosco Fung Chee-keung said the plan had three design emphases: creating vibrancy and diversity; creating enjoyable public spaces; and creating a green edge around the harbour and central business district.
'The new harbourfront will be attractive in having a green unifying edge endowed with quality public and private developments in a luxuriant landscape,' he said.
A model of the plan, revealed in the Sunday Morning Post yesterday, will go on display at City Hall from Wednesday.
'We hope the public will comment on it,' Mr Fung said, without revealing how the public could do so or for how long the model would be on display.
He said it was premature to discuss the Tamar site in detail as the government was still holding a prequalification tendering exercise for the project. In the model, the Tamar buildings did not appear to be built on a podium, as was proposed by all developers in the prequalification exercise. And the buildings appeared lower than the nearby 126-metre tall Citic Tower, even though the developers' plans included towers built to the permitted maximum of 160 metres.
Legislator Kwok Ka-ki, convenor of the Action Group on Protection of the Harbour, Central and West, said the plan was too conceptual. 'The illustrations are fancy and the model looks fantastic. But without taking Tamar into account, it can hardly be called proper town planning,' he said.
Civic Party vice-chairman Albert Lai Kwong-tak urged the legislators at this morning's public works subcommittee meeting to delay the $5.1 billion funding request for the Tamar project.
'Like the West Kowloon project, we should allow the public more time. A three-month consultation should be appropriate,' he said.
Paul Zimmerman, of the group Designing Hong Kong Harbour District, said the government model would 'kill' the waterfront.
Hong Kong Institute of Architects vice-president Vincent Ng Wing-shun felt disappointed by the government's failure to include its views on Tamar in the plan.
'What is the government's own concept on the design of Tamar? How will it complement the harbourfront? The government has no concept at present.'
