ENG-1973 — Page 153

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Private Building

LAND AND HOUSING

After the June rainstorms in 1972 staff of the Buildings Ordinance Office had to defer normal duties to deal with emergency works in connection with dangerous buildings. Therefore, with the building boom, the backlog of building plans for processing continued to build up in the early part of 1973. It became necessary to pass the Buildings Ordinance (Extension of Operation of Section 30A) (Amendment) Regulations 1973. These regulations extended to June 30, 1973, the period in which the statutory time limits within which applications for the approval of plans and consent to start works must be processed by the Building Authority were suspended. To help clear the backlog of overdue plans, consultants were engaged in February to assist in checking structural submissions and a system of curtailed checking was introduced on May 15, 1973. These temporary measures have proved to be of great assistance.

As building proposals were getting more complex, additional checking procedures became necessary to ensure that interests of the government were not frustrated and the safety of adjoining property was not endangered, the 28-day time limit for pro- cessing building plans was neither realistic nor practicable. The Building (Administra- tion) Regulations 1973 were introduced on July 1, 1973 to extend the statutory period. for the approval of new submissions to 60 days and for re-submissions not constitu- ting a major revision to 30 days.

The Temporary Restriction of Building Development (Pok Fu Lam and Mid- levels) Ordinance became effective in July. Under this ordinance it is mandatory for the Building Authority to refuse, until January 31, 1974, to give approval to all new plans submitted after July 4, 1973 for building works in the Pok Fu Lam and Mid- levels areas. However, this legislation had no effect on buildings under construction nor on projects approved before July 4, 1973. The Buildings (Amendment) Ordinance 1973 was enacted to ensure that large sites to be developed have a reasonable internal road layout. Therefore, on September 14, 1973 the Building (Administration) (Amend- ment) (No 2) Regulations 1973 came into operation whereby the Building (Adminis- tration) Regulation 16 was amended to require proper enquiries to be made from the principal government engineer Highways Office regarding the provision of streets within a site on which building works are to be carried out, including connection to a public street.

Several buildings of note were completed or near completion during the year. They include the 34-storey Excelsior Hotel at East Point, the 35-storey Furama Hotel near the City Hall, the 18-storey Sheraton Hotel at the junction of Nathan Road and Salisbury Road in Kowloon, and the 52-storey Connaught Centre, once claimed to be the tallest building in Asia.

The dangerous buildings division of the Buildings Ordinance Office continued with demolition or repair of dangerous buildings. Other functions of the division included survey of potential dangerous buildings on a planned survey basis, routine re-inspection of suspect buildings and action in connection with the repair of defective