Repulse Bay residents oppose plans to build a hotel on the site of a government-owned beachfront building.
The three-storey Seaview Building, a fixture at the popular seaside community on the south shore of Hong Kong Island for 60 years, has been a restaurant for beach-goers but is now largely empy. Part of its ground floor is occupied by rental lockers.
The Planning Department says in a paper to the Town Planning Board that the site has the potential to be developed into a tourist facility. Tourism officials support the plan.
In the paper, due to be discussed by the board on Friday, the department suggests rezoning the lot, and an adjacent public car park, for hotel or commercial use, with a gross floor area of 4,300 square metres. It proposes a height restriction on the site be relaxed to allow a development 13 metres high.
The combined site, stretching a third of the length of the beach, has an area of about 4,420 square metres. A public lane is planned through the site for beach access.
The department says the Seaview Building is dilapidated and, in the view of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, has low heritage value because of substantial alterations and additions made to it since it was built. It is not a declared monument or a graded building.