77% of public submissions on University of Hong Kong plan to build research hub on green belt oppose the project
Hong Kong Free Press
A University of Hong Kong (HKU) plan to build a research hub in Pok Fu Lam has met with opposition from residents, who called for it to be relocated amid concerns over its impact on the environment.
HKU plans to build a Global Innovation Centre covering a 4.7-hectare site between Pok Fu Lam Road and Victoria Road. About 4.1 hectares of the site are currently classified as “green belt” and a plan to rezone the area for the construction of the facility has been submitted to the Town Planning Board.
A period allowing the public to give their opinions on the plan closed last week. Among 820 submissions made available by the Town Planning Board, 632, or 77 per cent, opposed the plan, HKFP calculated.
Many who made objections were residents of the Southern district. They said the project would require felling thousands of trees and worsen traffic in the area, while also complaining about a lack of public consultation from the university.
According to a planning report dated February, the construction of the innovation centre would remove about 2,000 trees in the area. In compensation, the report suggested planting some 850 trees.
Public briefing sessions with neighbouring residents and schools were held on May 13 and 14, about a week ahead of the deadline for public submissions. A total of 714 submissions were made after the briefing sessions, of which 580 were against the plan.
One of the objections was a drawing by a six-year-old, which said: “2,000 is too [many] trees… think before you do.”
HKU said no “insurmountable technical problems and impacts” were found in its feasibility study of the project. “A detailed tree management plan will be formulated, including recommendations on tree preservation, transplanting or removal and feasible compensatory planting proposals,” a HKU spokesperson told HKFP.
Alternative locations
Many residents also said that HKU had failed to consider alternative locations, adding that the proposed site – which is a hillside – added to the difficulty of the construction and the costs involved.
“We all support the idea of a Global Innovation Centre. We think it’s a great idea in principle,” said Gregory De Eb, a representative of the HKUGIC Public Representation Group, which he said had received support from 20 major residential blocks in the Southern and Western districts.
“However it is far better placed in the San Tin,” De Eb told HKFP, referring to a proposed 627-hectare tech hub near the city’s border with mainland China, which has been given the conditional go ahead by authorities despite environmental groups’ concerns. De Eb added that San Tin “has the country’s full support to be an upstream tech hub and aligns with the national development plan.”
See also: What is Hong Kong’s San Tin Technopole and why is the planned tech hub controversial?
“There is no alternative site considered, there is just this one site at Pok Fu Lam,” said Paul Zimmerman, a former Southern district councillor and the CEO of Designing Hong Kong.
An unspecified 4-hectare location in Pok Fu Lam was reserved by the administration under former chief executive Carrie Lam in her 2012 policy address, and HKU had not studied other possible locations for the project, Zimmerman told HKFP.
‘Synergy’
HKU said the location, which is close to its main campuses and other research facilities such as its medical campus on Sassoon Road and Queen Mary Hospital, would “create synergy” and form an “island innovation corridor” in the area.
“While developments in the northern metropolitan area will focus on research and development (R&D) activities and attract innovation and technology enterprises, the GIC will specialise in transdisciplinary basic research at the upstream that seeks to generate scientific discoveries,” the HKU spokesperson said.
“It is important to locate the GIC in close proximity to the HKU campus, so that researchers, academics and students can have easy access to the GIC and support from HKU,” they added.
The Town Planning Board is expected to hold a hearing on the proposed rezoning in the next few months, with Zimmerman saying only a “strong argument” from the community could effect change.
De Eb said his group would consider launching a legal challenge against the plan if it was approved by the Town Planning Board, but added that it was not the preferred course of action.
HKU has launched a website to provide and collect public comments on the project, its spokesperson said.
“The GIC is currently in the early planning stage, and the views collected will be carefully considered,” they added.
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