Hong Kong Town Planning Board decision to rezone golf course plot to remain as legal challenge over controversial housing plan yet to be settled
- Board says such land-use zoning provides flexibility for possible outcomes from judicial review
- In response to decision, Hong Kong Golf Club says maintaining the course’s integrity is ‘of utmost importance’
A decision to rezone a 9.5-hectare site at Hong Kong’s oldest golf course from “residential” to “undetermined” use will remain in place as a legal challenge against controversial plans for public housing there has yet to be settled, the Town Planning Board has said.
The board on Friday said such zoning provided flexibility for possible outcomes from the judicial review, which the Hong Kong Golf Club filed in August in a bid to halt a government plan to build thousands of flats on part of the Fanling course.
It said it would submit a draft of the Fanling/Sheung Shui Extension Area Outline Zoning Plan to the Chief Executive in Council for consideration before the November 30 statutory due date.
“Such land-use zoning serves as a transitional arrangement and does not determine the permanent use of the site,” a board spokesman said.
“It allows the Civil Engineering and Development Department to conduct the [pre-construction] review with flexibility to cater for possible outcomes of the judicial review, while providing appropriate planning control on the site during the interim period.”
The club filed the judicial review against the director of environmental protection’s conditional approval of an environmental impact assessment report that would pave the way for the flats to be built.
The report earlier determined that 9.5 hectares of the 32 hectares of leased land authorities were taking back from the club were suitable for public housing and that more than 20 hectares with higher ecological value should be conserved.