TNAG-0808-FCO40-1013-Use-of-Crown-lands-relinquished-by-Ministry-of-Defence-in-Ho-1978 — Page 6

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With the exception of the Deputy Financial Secretary, who feels that the land use zoning (but not necessarily the layout) should be on the lines of the Committee's preliminary proposals, with the Public Works Department's proposals as a useful fall back position, the official view is that the alternative proposals as annexed would more nearly meet the original terms of reference, and represent a better use of the area than would be achieved through the Victoria Barracks Planning Committee's final proposals, both because the residential area in the eastern section will provide a better support to the commercial/residential strip in Queensway and a better lead from it into the park land behind, and also because of the increase revenue it will earn. However, because the planning of Victoria Barracks has been treated as a major public issue, particularly in the English language press, and because the procedures adopted for its planning were set up on a special basis in order to give an authoritative and final stamp to the plan, the likely public reaction to any decisions made at the present time is particularly important, both in relation to the present issue and also in relation to public confidence in the planning process in the future.

Likely public reaction

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The Secretary for Home Affairs has advised that, since the preliminary planning proposals were published for public comment, Government is committed to publication of the Committee's final plan- ning proposals. Criticism could be expected, however, if the land use zoning plan as annexed were to be adopted since Government would appear to be ignoring the advice of a committee appointed personally by His Excellency the Governor in order to obtain more revenue. The Director of Home Affairs' preliminary assessment is that, even if the revenue implications are clearly explained to the general public, people would not understand them and might not believe that revenue from land sales would benefit them. The general public would, therefore, tend to favour the scheme which provided the greatest amount of open space. However, there would be a general feeling based upon a traditional concept about the transmission of prosperity that it would be good if the prosperous Central District was linked with west Wan Chai by a band of commercial development. In this connection, the Deputy Financial Secretary has suggested that the Director of Home Affairs should be given the opportunity to make a more detailed assessment of public opinion before a decision is made in favour of the Committee's final proposals.

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The Director of Urban Services has advised that the Urban Council's reaction to the Committee's report is likely to be favourable overall. Strong criticism can be expected from the Council, however, if the revised land use zoning plan as annexed is adopted in preference to that prepared by the Committee (Annex B of the report) since there will be a significant reduction in the area zoned for open space use.

CONFIDENTIAL