Boost for Ferris wheel bid

A Wharf (Holdings) plan to build a 75-metre-high Ferris wheel on top of a four-storey retail complex in Tsim Sha Tsui has been boosted by a Town Planning Board decision to relax building height controls at the Ocean Terminal extension.

Height control has been a major obstacle for Wharf's proposal. Its first application to develop the attraction was rejected in March.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the planning board said the height restriction had been extended from 38 metres to 103 metres and Wharf should submit a detailed planning application for the development.

Ricky Wong Kwong-yiu, Wharf's assistant chief manager of property development and planning, said the company's latest submission was a rezoning request, which was technically different from the former planning application.

He expected to proceed with a detailed planning submission shortly after the zoning plan amendment had been gazetted, and he hoped the Ferris wheel could be finished by 2004.

Town planner Richard Yu Lap-kee criticised the Town Planning Board for permitting the height relaxation and said the Ferris wheel would block the Kowloon ridgelines.

Urban Watch chairman Wong Wah-sang said Hong Kong was unique in its need to preserve the ridgelines.

'If a Ferris wheel has to be there, I would rather it rise to only 60 metres. One hundred metres high is certainly unacceptable,' he said.