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The Chief Executive in Council has approved the draft Sham Chung Development Permission Area (DPA) Plan.
¡§The approved DPA Plan provides a statutory land use planning framework to guide the development and redevelopment within the Sham Chung area,¡¨ a spokesman for the Town Planning Board said today (January 25).
The approved Sham Chung DPA Plan covers a total area of about 32 hectares. It is bounded by the Sai Kung West Country Park in the south, east and north. To its west is Sham Chung Wan which is part of Three Fathoms Cove. The area is rich in natural landscape and ecological features worthy of conservation.
The general planning intention of the area is to conserve the areas of high ecological significance, to protect the rural character as well as to maintain the unique landscape and cultural heritage of the area. It is also intended to reserve land for Small House development by indigenous villagers.
A total of about 2.6 hectares of land is zoned ¡§Village Type Development¡¨ (¡§V¡¨) to cover the recognized Sham Chung Village and land suitable for village expansion.
About 8.3 hectares of low-lying flat land in the middle of the area is zoned ¡§Agriculture¡¨ (¡§AGR¡¨) to retain fallow arable land for cultivation and other agricultural purposes and to protect the rural character.
To define the limit of development areas by natural features as well as to provide passive recreational outlets, about 2.7 hectares of land is zoned ¡§Green Belt¡¨ (¡§GB¡¨) at the northern, eastern and south-western parts of the area.
About 16.1 hectares of land is zoned ¡§Conservation Area¡¨ (¡§CA¡¨) at the northern, eastern and southern end of the area to protect and retain the existing natural landscape, ecological or topographical features of the area for conservation, educational and research purposes, and to separate sensitive natural environment such as Country Park from the adverse effects of development.
The remaining 2.6 hectares of land at the western end of the area is zoned ¡§Coastal Protection Area¡¨ (¡§CPA¡¨) to protect and retain the coastlines and the sensitive coastal environment which contains three species of mangroves.
The approved Sham Chung DPA Plan No. DPA/NE-SC/3 is now available for public inspection during normal office hours at the Secretariat of the Board, the Planning Enquiry Counters of the Planning Department, the Sha Tin, Tai Po and North District Planning Offices, the Tai Po District Office and the Sai Kung North Rural Committee.
Copies of the approved plan are available for sale at the Map Publications Centres in North Point and Yau Ma Tei. The electronic version of the plan can be viewed on the Board¡¦s website at http://www.info.gov.hk/tpb.
Ends/Friday, January 25, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:08
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