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Planning, Land and Infrastructure

Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines

The Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines provide criteria for determining the scale, location and site requirements of various land uses and facilities applicable to planning studies, town plans and development control. These are reviewed from time to time by policy bureaus and government departments to take account of changes in government policies, demographic characteristics, and social and economic trends. In 2019, amendments to the standards and guidelines covered service terminal points and bus terminals and the provision of a district cooling system.

Planning Control and Enforcement

The Planning Authority is empowered under the Town Planning Ordinance to tackle unauthorised developments (UDS) in development permission areas. It may serve statutory notices on landowners, occupiers or responsible persons requiring them to stop or discontinue a UD within a specified time. A further statutory notice may be served to require reinstatement of the land. Non-compliance is a statutory offence.

In 2019, the Planning Authority discovered 594 new UDs, including unauthorised open storage, workshops, car parks and land or pond fillings, and issued 3,975 warning letters or reminders involving 821 cases, 2,916 enforcement notices involving 534 cases, 23 stop notices involving two cases, 1,185 reinstatement notices involving 206 cases and 3,375 compliance notices involving 511 cases. A total of 210 defendants in 87 cases were convicted. The enforcement and prosecution actions resulted in the discontinuation of 470 UDs on 102 hectares of land, while another 31 UDs occupying six hectares of land later obtained planning permission.

Land Control and Lease Enforcement

The Lands Department carries out squatter control work. There are 382,933 surveyed squatter structures throughout the territory. These structures are tolerated until they cease to exist or are to be cleared for development, environmental improvement or safety reasons.

In 2019, the department demolished 130 illegal structures and extensions, in addition to unauthorised structures cleared in the context of land control and lease enforcement. It also handled about 16,500 cases of reported unlawful occupation of government land and about 1,800 cases involving breaches of lease conditions.

The department keeps a register of man-made slopes that records maintenance responsibility. It inspects and maintains about 18,000 registered man-made slopes regularly, carrying out maintenance works on about 7,000 of them in 2019.

During the year, the department's Tree Unit provided in-house advice in about 3,640 cases of tree and landscape issues on leased land and unmanaged government land. The Land and Vegetation Contract Management Section of the department conducted ad hoc vegetation maintenance work in about 23,140 cases.

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