Hong Kong’s planning body has green-lighted the Flower Market redevelopment project, despite residents and florists expressing concern that building high-rises and shopping malls will uproot the historic Prince Edward business community.
People shop in Hong Kong’s flower market in April 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
The Town Planning Board (TPB) disclosed the decision in the minutes of a January 17 meeting, which was published Friday. It said the majority of its members supported the development plan after reviewing input from the public, and that they agreed that the plan “should be not amended.”
The TPB said the scheme is now suitable to submit to the Executive Council for approval.
Proposed by the Urban Renewal Authority (URA), the large-scale development plan will demolish the Flower Market Path to build a waterway. It also plans to “transfer” the plot ratio of 22 older and low-rise buildings to develop high-rise properties on nearby sites.
Those who gave written submissions delivered presentations in front of the TPB members on January 8 and 9 before the board decided whether to greenlight the redevelopment project.
Some members of the flower market concern group meet the press on October 18, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
“During the hearing sessions, most representations were not substantiated on the concept, layout, and redevelopment parameters and technical feasibility of the proposal…,” the TPB said in the meeting minutes. “Some representers, who were not residents, attended the meeting to support the redevelopment. This third-party endorsement of the proposal was encouraging.”
‘Inadequate public engagement’
The planning body also said that public engagement conducted by the URA was “generally considered inadequate,” as they urged the statutory body to adopt “a participatory approach” to engage residents and shop operators to reach consensus on how to run the market after redevelopment.
An aerial view of the park and sports facilities across Flower Market Road. Three high-rise buildings will be erected on this site according to URA’s redevelopment scheme. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Chan Kim-ching, a researcher with the development policy think tank Liber Research Community, told HKFP that such acomments were rare for the TPB.
“The TPB said that public participation was inadequate in the redevelopment. While the URA said that the project is to revitalise the community, it didn’t realise that the success of revitalisation depends on residents and florists, not the URA,” Chan said in Cantonese.
Maintaining ‘the bazaar style’
Separately, the TPB also said the URA should consider a series of revisions of the redevelopment scheme, including acquiring and redeveloping a few more old buildings with elevators, and maintaining “the bazaar style” of an open area in a site that the URA proposed to build residential blocks and a shopping mall.
The Urban Renewal Authority’s Kelvin Chung (left) and Lawrence Mak present the development scheme of Sai Yee Street and Flower Market Road on March 15, 2024. Photo: URA.
It also urged URA to review carefully “the proportion of the commercial component” at another site where the URA planned to build commercial buildings and a shopping mall given “fluctuations in the property market.”
Those suggestions, though not mandatory, were a response to some submissions from residents and florists in the Flower Market community, Chan said.
As HKFP reported in early January, submissions that opposed the project questioned why the URA wanted to turn such a large area of public land, which makes up 90 per cent of the proposed development area, into residential and commercial zones. Others criticised the lack of a clear standard used to determine which buildings would be revamped.
Submissions also expressed concern that the redevelopment would “destroy the integrity and vibrant ambience” of the Flower Market and expedite gentrification.
