SYNOPSIS
6. A COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT "PROCESS”
6.1
■ CONCEPT FOR SAN TIN*
Regional Planning Aspects
6.1.1 We know that Government is interested in meeting the physical and social needs of the New Territories village people. (Over the past many months the STDMC's consultants have certainly appreciated Government support and interest in San Tin.) However, Government has personnel and resource limitations due to other Govern- ment development committments; particularly in the areas of project planning, finance, and administration. To overcome these limitations within the San Tin water- shed region before development pressures force piecemeal solutions, the STDMC produced this Master Plan.
6.1.2 The proposed "Rural New Town" for San Tin is intended as a whole and integrated urban-rural package. In keeping with the site sensitive, or more land "resource-responsible" design approach taken in San Tin, it follows that project implementation methods should be just as locally responsible and self-contained. [This means that all development procedural problems in San Tin will (where possible) be solved within the site boundary by the village people (through the STDMC) and their eventual joint venture development partners.] For example: all clearance and resettlement of existing San Tin watershed residents will be accommodated in on-site tenant farmer resettlement units, in industry-associated resettlement areas, and in subsidized Master Plan (Home Ownership Scheme) housing in the Eastern development valley (See Addendum B, Section 1 for details.); also all private and relevant Crown Land will of necessity be packaged, surrendered and regranted under tight "community" lease conditions to guarantee the overall natural/built and social environmental quality of new expanded community in San Tin.
6.2 Community Aspects
6.2.1 Based on the facts and the analyses presented here and in Volume 2, Chapter 3 and 9 of the Master Plan, 4 basic conditions must be met in San Tin as a basis for comprehensive community improvement:
First, appreciating that balanced and improved "community" quality of life could never be achieved in the rural New Territories without sympathetic public policy considerations, Government must obviously lend its support;
Second, the majority of San Tin villagers must show Government that they are willing to assemble the major portion of their land toward comprehensive community development;
Third, development proposals (if they are to be considered "legitimate") must be fair to present and future landowners, and to residents within and beyond the proposed development area; and
Fourth, proposals must be implementable primarily by the private sector minimal Government involvement.
with
Much of Master Plan Volume 2 is devoted to showing the how and why of these 4 basic pre-conditions.
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRESSURES CONFRONTING SAN TIN
Environmental
Degradation
Population Growth
with Resultant
Residential &
Industrial Development Pressures
*Local Aspects
•
San Tin
Community- Improvement Pressures
'See Note
The Spiralling Value of Good Urban/Agricultural Development Land
Pervasive
Social Anomie
Proposed Lok Ma Chau Border Station Plus N.W.N.T. Infrastructure Improvements & ather Proposed major Developments
Unique Community Tradition & Sense of Common Purpose
Unique Site & Development Characteristics
• Unique Land Ownership Patterns
Potential
· Unique Environmental Condition, i.e., and entire watershed
•
Unique "Balanced" or "Mixed" Urban/Rural Development Potential
Village Improvement Detail
*See Volume 2, Chapter 9 for details.
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