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Infrastructure Development and Heritage Conservation
Land Supply
Increasing land supply is an ongoing task to meet Hong Kong's housing demand and various social and economic development needs. The Government's strategy can be broadly categorised into re-using existing land and creating new land.
The Government closely monitors the use of existing land so as to optimise the use of all developable land. The development feasibility of land with potential for development is reviewed and assessed and when a plot of land is ready for development, the Government will allocate it for public housing development, include it in the Application List for land sale, or allocate it for other uses.
Creating new land is an important source of land in the medium to long term. Newly created land can be made available for large-scale and higher-intensity development based on the results of planning and engineering studies, levelling hills, reclamations, etc. The Planning Department's planning/studies for new land cover various areas, including the North East New Territories New Development Areas, Hung Shui Kiu New Development Area, Tung Chung New Town Extension Study, West Rail Kam Sheung Road Station/Pat Heung Maintenance Centre, a number of quarries, and some agricultural land in North District/Yuen Long currently used mainly for industrial purposes or temporary storage, or which are deserted.
Reclamation on an appropriate scale outside Victoria Harbour and rock cavern development can be possible options for increasing land supply and building up a land reserve. In addition, reclamation offers a sustainable solution for handling surplus public fill and contaminated sediments. From November 2011 to March 2012 the public's views were sought on the land supply strategy of reclamation outside Victoria Harbour and rock cavern development, including site selection criteria for such development. In May 2012, the Drainage Services Department commenced a feasibility study on the relocation of the Sha Tin sewage treatment works to caverns to free the original site for housing and other uses, and in September the Civil Engineering and Development Department commenced another study of the long-term strategy for cavern development in Hong Kong.
Land Acquisition
Acquisition of private land for public use may be achieved through negotiation or resumption under the relevant ordinances which provide for compensation for the property's value and for the loss of business. If agreement on the amount of money to be paid cannot be reached, either party may go to the Lands Tribunal for adjudication. Some 558,850 square metres of private land, comprising about 45,910 square metres of building land and 512,940 square metres of agricultural land, were acquired in 2012. Compensation amounting to $718.5 million was paid.
The Lands Department was also involved in the resumption of land for urban renewal projects. In 2012, compensation totalling $66.23 million was paid to owners of 66 resumed properties affected by 12 urban renewal projects. Some three hectares of land, including underground strata, were resumed for the railway facilities of the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou- Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the South Island Line East and the Kwun Tong Line Extension. Compensation amounting to $128 million was paid.
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