• 11/10/2024

Hong Kong man lodges legal challenge against environmental authorities’ approval of San Tin Technopole report

Hong Kong Free Press

A Hongkonger has lodged a legal challenge against environmental authorities approval of a report that green lit a proposed 600-hectare tech hub near the city’s border with Shenzhen, which has sparked concerns over its impact on wetlands and endangered species that frequent them.

A social worker protest against social worker registration suggestion and request lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen to respond to governement accusations outside government headquarters on May 29, 2024.
Social worker Eddie Tse. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

Eddie Tse, a registered social worker and the convenor of the environmental group Save Lantau Alliance, filed an application to challenge the San Tin Technopole’s environmental impact report (EIA) at the High Court last Thursday.

Tse argued that the planned tech hub did not meet legal requirements, and therefore the environmental protection chief’s approval of the EIA had violated the laws.

“I am a registered social worker and care about the protection of Hong Kong’s biodiversity and environmental justice. I am concerned that the San Tin Technopole project could cause severe harm to precious land of ecological value,” Tse said in a Chinese statement released last Thursday.

Great egret and little egret stay in a fishpond in San Tin, an area which will be redeveloped into a large-scale tech hub. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
Great egrets and little egrets in a fishpond in San Tin, an area which will be redeveloped into a large-scale tech hub. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The application is yet to be approved by High Court.

The Environmental Protection Department said in a statement last Thursday it had “not received the formal notice of the judicial review application.”

“The department will study the content of the application in detail and handle the judicial review application in strict accordance with statutory procedures. It would be inappropriate for the department to make further comments at this stage,” it continued.

Judicial reviews are considered by the Court of First Instance and examine the decision-making processes of administrative bodies. Issues under review must be shown to affect the wider public interest.

An aerial view of the fishponds and wetlands in San Tin, an area which will be redeveloped into the San Tin Technopole by the government. Photo: Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS).
An aerial view of the fishponds and wetlands in San Tin, an area which will be redeveloped into the San Tin Technopole by the government. Photo: Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS).

In 2021, the Environmental Protection Department released the project profile of the planned tech hub, laying out a 340-hecare planning zone for the project.

Samuel Chui, Hong Kong's environmental protection chief. Photo: GovHK.
Samuel Chui, Hong Kong’s environmental protection chief. Photo: GovHK.

However, authorities significantly enlarged the tech hub’s planning zone in May 2023 to over 600 hectares, which would result in the damage of 248 hectares of wetland conservation area and buffer zones.

Tse argued that the EIA approved by authorities was not based on the updated project details, and the environmental authorities had not held any public consultation on the enlarged area of the proposed tech hub.

Besides, the EIA did not offer any alternative plan to reduce the tech hub’s impact on ecosystem, nor did it contain any compensational measure for the wetlands that are to be harmed.

Threat to wetland ecosystem

Several environmental groups have raised concerns about the project, saying it would pose a significant threat to the last remaining largest and intact coastal wetland ecosystem in the Greater Bay Area.

Environmental groups from Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau file a joint petition letter to the Development Bureau, Town Planning Board (and Planning Department on Tuesday to call for a revision of a development plan for the city’s proposed San Tin Technopole plan. Photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.
Environmental groups from Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau file a joint petition letter to the Development Bureau, Town Planning Board (and Planning Department on Tuesday to call for a revision of a development plan for the city’s proposed San Tin Technopole plan. Photo: Kelly Ho/HKFP.

Following environmental authorities’ approval of the project’s EIA, 10 environmental groups from Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau submitted a joint petition letter to the Development Bureau, Town Planning Board (TPB) and Planning Department in June to call for a revision of a development plan.

The groups warned that the proposal may violate at least five ecological conservation guidelines in mainland China. 

See also: What is Hong Kong’s San Tin Technopole and why is the planned tech hub controversial?

Nevertheless, the TPB approved the outline zoning plans of the tech hub on July 20.

According to the government’s timeline, site formation is aimed at starting in the forth quarter of 2024, subject to funding approval from the legislature. A government document submitted to the legislature in December 2023 stated that land resumption for the first stage of San Tin Technopole development would cost around HK$48.3 billion.

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https://hongkongfp.com/2024/08/05/hong-kong-man-lodges-legal-challenge-against-environmental-authorities-approval-of-san-tin-technopole-report/