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At its meeting today (July 14), the Land and Development Advisory Committee (LDAC) received a briefing from the Development Bureau (DEVB) and relevant government departments on the studies and public engagement exercise on increasing land supply by reclamation outside Victoria Harbour and rock cavern development.
The Committee agreed that the Government should further study ways to provide usable land, including reclamation outside Victoria Harbour and rock cavern development, to meet Hong Kong's housing and economic development needs in the medium to long term. Members suggested that in future public engagement, the Administration should actively engage the community to discuss the need and options available to increase land supply.
Members noted that reclamation would help resolve the problems of handling surplus public fill and contaminated sediments. Relocating suitable government facilities to caverns would also free up land for housing and other purposes.
The Civil Engineering and Development Department started the preliminary feasibility study on reclamation outside Victoria Harbour and cavern development earlier this month. The Stage 1 public engagement exercise will start in the fourth quarter of this year.
The LDAC also advised the Government to support a project to redevelop the Pioneer Memorial Church building and the former Hong Kong Sam Yuk Secondary School premises in Happy Valley proposed by the Hong Kong-Macao Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The site will be redeveloped into a four-storey-high church building and a complex with church facilities, senior hostel and residential care home for the elderly.
The Pioneer Memorial Church was graded as a Grade 3 historic building in November 2010. Through the co-ordination of the Development Opportunities Office of DEVB, the Commissioner for Heritage's Office and the Antiquities and Monuments Office have obtained the project proponent's agreement to preserve the character-defining features of the existing church building and to reassemble them in the redeveloped church building. The project proponent will continue to work with the Administration on details of its conservation plan.
Members noted that the new church building would provide additional floor space and facilities for church activities. The new senior hostel and residential care home for the elderly would provide elderly people with more housing choices and provide care and support services to elderly people with various intensive care needs.
Ends/Thursday, July 14, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:40
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