The Town Planning Board today (June 16) promulgated a revised set of Master Schedule of Notes to Statutory Plans (MSN), Definition of Terms used in Statutory Plans (DoT) and Broad Use Terms (BUT) to meet emerging uses and new developments over the years.

     With a view to supporting art development and optimising the use of industrial floor space, "Art Studio (excluding those involving direct provision of services or goods)" has been incorporated as an always permitted use for industrial (I) and industrial-office (I-O) buildings in the "Industrial" ("I"), "Residential (Group E)" ("R(E)") and "Other Specified Uses" annotated "Business" ("OU(B)") zones in some Outline Zoning Plans (OZPs) since 2015. Amendments to the MSN and corresponding amendments to the planning intention of the "I" zone are now made to guide future amendments to other OZPs.

     Revision is made to the DoT of "Public Utility Installation" ("PUI") so as to include small-scale sewage treatment/screening plants provided by the Government with a treatment capacity of less than 5 000 cubic metres per day to facilitate the provision of such facilities in the rural area. Corresponding revisions to the DoT of "PUI" and "Sewage Treatment/Screening Plant" and the BUT of "PUI" are made.

     To allow for emerging uses such as hydroponics and aquaculture, which could generally be accommodated in industrial buildings, a new term "Technology-based Crop and Aquaculture Production (excluding those involving direct provision of customer services or goods)" is added in the DoT. The use is regarded as "Non-polluting Industrial Use", which could be allowed in the "I" and "OU(B)" zones as well as the I and I-O buildings in the "R(E)" zone.

     Other revisions made include revising the DoT of "Cooked Food Centre" to better reflect its operation and the BUT of "Government Use" and "Office" so that government offices in commercial buildings would be considered as "Office", as well as minor technical amendments to the MSN to reflect the provisions in some OZPs currently in force.

     Future amendments to OZPs will incorporate the revised MSN.

     The revised MSN, DoT and BUT are now available at the Secretariat of the Board at 15/F, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong (Tel: 2231 4810 or 2231 4835), the Board's website (www.info.gov.hk/tpb), and at the Planning Enquiry Counters of the Planning Department in North Point and Sha Tin.

Ends/Friday, June 16, 2017
Issued at HKT 16:00

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