An application by a senior conservation official to build a house on an ecologically sensitive site just outside one of Hong Kong’s country parks has been met with heavy opposition from environmental groups and locals.
Dr Thomas Sit, assistant director for inspection and quarantine at the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (Oh, the irony!), has applied to build a three-storey house (or five) on a government lot in Ham Tin’s Tai Long Wan village.
The plan, if approved, will involve building five 700-sqft houses facing the Ham Tin Wan waterfront, a site popular with hikers and campers for its nature and landscape.
Almost all of the 39 public submissions made public on the project are against the proposal. Notable groups in opposition include The Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (who take in pretty much all of Hong Kong’s saved smuggled animals) and the Conservancy Association (a major green group).
It is understood that thousands more objections have been filed.
Sit insists he has the right to build a single home for “personal use” on the land as a local native, reports SCMP. His argument refers to the controversial New Territories Exempted House policy dating to the 1970s, whereby indigenous male villagers are entitled to apply to build three-storey homes of up to 2,100 sqft.
Because women don’t need houses.
Sit, however, declined to comment on the other four applications, which have all been filed under the Sit family name and with the same covering letter.
Critics were quick to slam the proposal, with the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden calling for it to be “unequivocally rejected”.
Green group the Conservancy Association said in an official statement that the plans are of “great concern” and “would adversely disturb the integrity of existing village” and “create disharmony” in a community almost exclusively of one-storey houses.
The group is also concerned that the plan will undermine the site’s heritage, as “cultural relics of late Neolithic and Brown Age dated between 4,000 to 2,500 years ago” are present. As of yet, they say no approval has been granted from the respective authorities.
The statement went as far as to question Sit’s eligibility to apply, as his surname is different to the villagers’ single clan surname of Wan. In addition, CA questioned whether Sit has obtained the relevant thumbs up from a village representative.
“If these applications on the government land were approved, it would set an undesirable precedent that adverse cumulative impact on rural landscape, natural environment and heritage would be resulted,” the statement reads.
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