The Town Planning Board today (January 8) announced the publication of the draft Pui O Au Development Permission Area (DPA) Plan.

     The draft Pui O Au DPA Plan covers an area of about 8.89 hectares which is located on the southern part of Lantau Island and sandwiched between Lantau South Country Park and South Lantau Road. The Area is characterised by a rural and countryside ambience, consists of natural landscape in the central part with village settlements mainly in the south-western part.

     A spokesman for the Town Planning Board said that the general planning intention is to conserve its landscape and ecological value in safeguarding the natural habitats, to maintain the unique rural and natural character of the Area, and to prevent it from encroachment by unauthorised development and from undesirable change of use.

     Though it is not exceptional in terms of biodiversity or ecological importance, the Area forms an integral part of the natural woodlands system in the adjoining Lantau South Country Park. The Pui O Stream flows through the Area with the lower course, which is the Ecologically Important Stream, outside the Area. There is a need to better protect the natural and landscape character of the Area to avoid disturbing the natural environment. The whole area of the Plan has been designated as "Unspecified Use" pending detailed analysis and studies to establish the appropriate land uses in the course of the preparation of an Outline Zoning Plan (OZP). The DPA Plan will be replaced by an OZP as soon as possible.

     The draft Pui O Au DPA Plan is now available for public inspection during office hours at (i) the Secretariat of the Town Planning Board, (ii) the Planning Enquiry Counters of the Planning Department in North Point and Sha Tin, (iii) the Sai Kung and Islands District Planning Office, (iv) the Islands District Office and (v) the South Lantao Rural Committee.

     Any person may make written representations in respect of the draft plan to the Secretary of the Town Planning Board on or before March 8. Any person who intends to make a representation is advised to read the revised Town Planning Board Guidelines No. 29B on "Submission and Publication of Representations, Comments on Representations and Further Representations under the Town Planning Ordinance" (TPB PG-No. 29B) which were promulgated in November 2018 and took effect in 2019.

     Submission of a representation should comply with the requirements set out in TPB PG-No. 29B. In particular, the representer should take note of the following:

* If the representer fails to provide his or her full name and the first four alphanumeric characters of his or her Hong Kong identity card or passport number as required under TPB PG-No. 29B, the representation submitted shall be treated as not having been made; and
* The Secretariat of the Town Planning Board reserves the right to require the representer to provide identity proof for verification.

     The Guidelines and the submission form are available at locations (i) and (ii) above and the Town Planning Board's website (www.info.gov.hk/tpb).

     Copies of the draft DPA 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 at the Town Planning Board's website (www.info.gov.hk/tpb).

Ends/Friday, January 8, 2021
Issued at HKT 16:00

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