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INDUSTRIAL LOCATION AND ZONING.
35. A considerable amount of zoning for industry has already been carried out, there being three major groups (a) Noxious (b) Intermediate (c) Light Industry. In the main this zouing has followed existing trends and has sought to confine what is already there rather than to direct development. A large scale scheme of harbour reclamation, the proposal to rebuild and enlarge certain harbour works, and finally the possible full development of land for residential purposes in Kowloon, with the proposed reduction of population in Hong Kong Island, call for a revision of these industrial zones.
36. In a number of places additional and more detailed surveys are required in order to find out how far industrialisation of certain areas has gone this applies to the long strip behind Connaught Road; East Point near Causeway Bay and the Ma Tau Kok area on the east in Kowloon. One or two areas which have been already zoned for industry, under the proposed conditions might well revert to residential, but without attempting to remove existing industries: an example of this is the area immediately south of the old Kowloon City. It is proposed to zone a very large area from Shek Shan northwards, including Ma Tau Kok as a Trading Estate, which should be given positive encouragement; this would become the major industrial zone in this part of Kowloon (but the noxious area should be eliminated, including ultimately the Cement Works). This links up with Tai Wan and Hung Hom and will be one of the most important shipping and industrial zones in the Colony.
37. On the western side of the Kowloon peninsula much readjustment of the existing industrial zoning is necessary, owing to the proposed alteration of the coast line. From Lai Chi Kok there is an intermediate industry frontage as far south as Prince Edward Road, with a residential hinterland. The present noxious zone at Tai Kok Tsui should not extend eastwards of Tong Mi Road. The filled in Typhoon anchorage could be zoned for light industry and commercial use, but the existing noxious zone eastwards should be eliminated. The Kowloon wharves, as already mention- ed may be supplemented with new enclosing piers.
38. The long strip town on either side of Nathan Road is a mixed zone, predominantly commercial and residential: its continuation northwards is by Cheung Sha Wan Road. These roads form a fine backbone to Kowloon, whose boldness of conception is marred by the side streets entering at every block and continuous frontages (a treatment normal to the period). Conditions might eventually be improved for through traffic.
39. On the eastern side of Kowloon Bay there is an opportunity for a large industrial and shipping frontage, with additional piers (the rail connection will be dealt with later). Here the oil storage is located.
40. The Island harbour frontage from Belcher's Bay to Shaukiwan requires detailed study, particularly with regard to the depth of the coastal industrial strip. A clear break is of course essential from the Yau Ma Ti Pier (or further west) to the beginning of Gloucester Road. The only three sites for noxious industry are at the extreme west at Belcher's Bay-for the slaughterhouse only-at North Point, and at the extreme east for a small fish curing area at Shaukiwan. This latter is the same type of special area allowed for at Aberdeen and its island.
41. It will be seen from the above brief description, that with the exception of a narrow strip of harbour frontage, including the ship repairing yard at Taikoo, on Hong Kong Island, the large and continuous industrial areas of various types are all located in Kowloon: they will thus provide work places for the increased population of half a million which can be placed there.
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42. Consideration of the light industrial zones (which approximate to the domestic workshops on the ground floors of tenements) should include (a) their relation to the surrounding residential areas (b) provision for loading and other requirements of industry (c) the avoidance of obstruction of traffic on main roads. If these conditions are observed, there is no objection to a wide distribution of these industrial zones, so as to minimise the distance between home and work. And they will allow regulations to be imposed prohibiting any further conversion of houses into partial factories.
43. To sum up, there should be four broad types of industrial location.
(a) Noxious
(b) Intermediate
(c) Light
(d) Home or domestic
Of these (a) should have no houses whatever within the zone: (b) should be in properly planned Trading Estates' in which a limited number of houses may be allowed: (c) will require individual decisions on each site in relation to traffic and houses. The Lands Department must beware of snatching quick profits through leasing factory sites without regard to surrounding conditions.
6.
ROADS.
44. The existing roads of Hong Kong are sharply divided according to hillside and level ground. Roads on the latter are exclusively gridiron in pattern; on the former a free landscape treatment is dictated by contours. There has however been some attempt, as is so frequent elsewhere, to apply gridiron planning to irregular sites. At the same time there has been a tendency to start levelling rocky ground to produce a level site for a piece. of gridiron layout. This has led at times to most expensive site works, through insufficient study of the geological formation, the decomposed granite being irregular in its appearance.
45. The layout of level ground has been dominated by the gridiron mentality"; indeed when once roadmakers and property developers are inoculated with this pattern, it is extremely difficult to throw off. Squared plots on level ground are so simple and effective for leasing and building (especially with standardised Chinese tenements) that they appear inevitable, as has happened with millions of acres in U.S.A. But this method in which crossroads occur merely as boundaries of blocks or as coverage for sewers and stormwater is directly at variance with traffic requirements which seek to canalise main routes and avoid cross currents. Nor does the gridiron reflect any of the changing emphasis of community grouping. The main backbone of through roads on the Island, Des Voeux, Queens, Hennessy and the much finer Nathan Road of Kowloon, are rendered ineffective as main traffic routes by reason of these cross roads and the continuous riparian frontages.
46. The hillside roads in Hong Kong Island display an exuberance of construction that is quite astonishing there appears to have been no limit to the length of road in relation to buildings or through traffic and there was apparently in the past no charge for road-making made to the developer. In the future (and a considerable amount of new hillside development is to be anticipated for larger houses), it is recommended that the developers roughly form the roads, which are then to be made up by the Government and charged to the developers: they will then be maintained by the P.W.D. Alternatively, when it is intended to encourage development (and by
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