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Planners actively identifying more housing sites
The Planning Department has been actively identifying additional sites for residential development to meet the demand from a larger and more affluent population, the Director of Planning, Dr Peter Pun, said at a meet-the-media session today (Thursday).
"At the district level, work is in progress to identify and rezone suitable sites for housing development. The possibility of redeveloping some military sites will also be examined," Dr Pun said.
Dr Pun also disclosed that the department would commission a consultancy study next month to assess the redevelopment potential of individual buildings or sites in the metropolitan area under public or private ownership, and to estimate the annual flat production from redevelopment.
The study is scheduled to be completed in the middle of next year.
He added that, however, the availability of industrial land and premises to meet the needs of changing industrial structure was also important.
"A study on the restructuring of obsolete industrial areas has been completed, and we will carry out case studies this year to examine the broad alternative approaches identified in the study.
"Another study on the provision of industrial premises and the development of planning guidelines and design parameters for new industrial areas and business parks was also commissioned in July last year to assess future changes in industrial requirements; review and formulate planning standards and guidelines; and develop detailed design parameters for the preparation of layouts for industrial areas and business parks," Dr Pun said.
Another major area where the department had been making substantial efforts was enforcement actions against unauthorised developments in the New Territories.
During last year, 147 cases of suspected unauthorised developments, mainly in Yuen Long and northeast New Territories, were subject to enforcement action.
A total of 157 enforcement notices and five reinstatement notices were issued after investigation.
Meanwhile, a total of 57 planning applications in respect of the unauthorised developments were submitted to the Town Planning Board.