3
(a) The Seminar was of the opinion that the present town
planning legislation is inadequate for the Colony's needs. (b) The Seminar considered that a "supreme" Planning Authority
as a separate entity for the whole Colony is desirablo. (c) The Seminar requests Government to set up a Working Party
composed of members chosen from within the Government and
from professional bodies without Government charged with
the revision of Legislation and Practice in relation to
town and country planning in the Colony on the broadest
basis.
(a) The Seminar requests that such a Working Party should
have regard to the record of the Seminar's proceedings
and to the "Review of the Town Planning Ordinance"
prepared by the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Town Planning
Institute in March 1973.
5.
As a result, a Hong Kong Government Study Group was constituted between 1974 and 1976 to examine the inadequacy of the Ordinance and to recommend the necessary amondments to the existing legislation or to make proposals for a new ordinance. The Study Group proposed that a Green Paper, entitled "A New Pattern of Town Planning in Hong Kong should be published for public comments. The draft Green Paper concluded that no revision of the existing planning legislation could ever eliminate its present shortcomings. The Paper therefore recommended the introduction of a new planning system new types of plans, a new structure of planning committees to prepare, publish and approve statutory tom plms, a new development control system with its attendant requirements for appeals, compensation, enforcement and so on. During the properation of the draft
Green Paper, consideration was given to the findings of the Planning Advisory Group 1965, the Skeffington Report, the Tom and Country Planning 1968 Act and the British experience in formulating similar proposals.
It suggests, for example, a three-tier planning system that was to include the Hong Kong Outline Plan, Structure Plans and Local Plans; the division of responsibilities for important planning decisions, a Commissioner for Planning to oversee the Local Planning Authorities, and a Comprehensive Development Control System, including enforcement aspects.
Contn'd-