Subject: [Hong Kong] Development at Fung Lok Wai 濕地建高樓 長實破壞生態 [Print This Page] Author: Webcreeper Time: 13/01/2007 13:22 Subject: Development at Fung Lok Wai 濕地建高樓 長實破壞生態
Cheung Kong Holdings have completed the EIA on their proposal for a residential development at Fung Lok Wai that includes some 23-storey buildings and some 2-storey houses. Green groups are worried that the plan may provide a bad precedent for developers’ encroachment into wetlands.
Lew Young, Manager of MPNR, commented that CKH’s proposal to reserve 95% of the land for conservation could be a good example for developers who have plans on the buffer zone.
Mike Kilburn, vice chairman of HKBWS, suggested that the proposed wetland conservation fund should not be limited to one site, but pooled to cover all wetlands in Hong Kong.
Some environmentalists think that some green groups have softened their position and sided with developers.
The EIA report for Cheung Kong Holdings’ development plan at Fung Lok Wai would soon be submitted to EPD for approval. The preferred option includes 7 block of 18- to 24- storey flats and 54 houses. Friends of the Earth is worried that this would be a bad precedent for more development in the buffer zone, while Tung is concerned about the high-rise blocks’ effect on the flight path of raptors.
95% of the 76.1 hectare site would remain a managed wetland run by an independent trust fund.
