Most Hong Kong private sector green belt rezoning applications rejected, study finds
Study provides ammunition for opponents of government plans to rezone edge-of-town land and construct thousands of new flats
Planners have shot down more than 80 per cent of applications from private companies to rezone green belt land for housing over the past 18 years, often for fear of setting an "undesirable precedent", a study shows.
The findings add fuel to green groups' opposition to government plans to turn 150 hectares of green belt over for housing - a key plank of its ambitious target of adding 480,000 new homes by 2015. Researchers behind the study urged the Town Planning Board to ensure it treated government applications the same way it did those from developers.
The Planning Department's applications to rezone 70 such sites are at a critical stage, as the board vets the first batch.
The board has so far approved 11 and vetoed three government applications. That means some 27 hectares of land will be available to provide 16,000 flats.
But the government suffered its first setback last month, when the board struck down rezoning proposals for two sites in Tai Po.
The government says the green sites it wants developed have little conservation value, though some board members have pointed out that that was never the green belt's purpose. Instead it was intended to stop urban sprawl and set a boundary between town and country.