Conservancy Association opposes government plans currently under public consultation, amid claims latest small-houses sell-off may be illegal
JENNIFER.NGO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Monday, 18 January, 2016, 10:13pm
UPDATED : Monday, 18 January, 2016, 10:13pm
Hakka-style village houses nestle in the enclave of Pak Sha O in Sai Kung. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A green group has identified another village in Sai Kung where villagers are alleged to have offloaded their right to build small houses to a developer, after the practice was ruled criminal by a court last month.
The village is located in Pak Sha O, a picturesque enclave known to be a haven for winter butterflies, with an ecologically important stream.
The Conservancy Association opposes government plans – now under public consultation until February 4 – to designate a chunk of land for development of village houses, stating that it would destroy the area’s rich ecology.
The enclave is also within a water catchment area, cause concerns about sewage and waste disposal if a bigger population moved in. It is currently not accessible by car.
Roy Ng Hei-man, of the Conservancy Association, said: “We oppose government plans to draw up that development zone, because we question whether the need for housing is real.”
This comes after a court found 11 villagers and a developer guilty of a scam involving selling their village house rights for profit, sentencing them to up to three years’ jail.
Pak Sha O was first spotlighted in 2012 when farming plots were put into destroyed marshland by a major landowner , Xinhua Bookstore Xiang Jiang Group.
Ng said documents indicate that original plans show village the development zone to be 0.32 hectares where old Hakka buildings currently stand, conserved under the efforts of expatriates who have been long-time inhabitants in the village.
But a new housing development area of 0.7 hectares – big enough for 27 houses – was drawn in last year, after the Pak Sha O village representatives demanded more land to cover the demand for housing, with 38 village housing applications pending.
The Hakka buildings would need special permission for redevelopment according to the plan, in order to preserve their heritage value. The village representative could not be reached yesterday.
According to land-search documents, Xinhua owns roughly 50 per cent of the land in the new drawn-up zone. Ng pointed out that Xinhua had divided up some of the bigger land lots into smaller sections. Some were resold back to villagers, with village house applications underway.
“We suspect this is a case of the developer working with villagers on a plan to build a whole development [for profit], with the villagers selling their rights to build houses,” said Ng.
“A development of this scale will ruin the area – even if the government claims that there are buffer zones like that between the development area and the stream.”
With 27 new houses built in, traffic and sewage would be big problems even with designated areas for conservation and would ultimately pollute the area, he said.
Over 30 per cent of all types of butterflies found in Hong Kong can be seem in the enclave, as well as 175 types of bird.
The area falls within a water catchment area, which mean septic tanks and soakaway systems are considered unacceptable, according to a spokeswoman for the Planning Department.
The spokeswoman said that the plans were made after consultation with green groups, villagers, members of the public and other government departments.
She said only 3 per cent of land is designated for small-house development and unable to meet current needs.
A Lands Department spokeswoman said of 38 small house applications, 16 fall within the new zone, but none has yet been given a permit. She said the department would “follow up” on any suspected scams, but they were limited in terms of criminal investigations as it is only a civil department. However, it would cooperate with law enforcement departments.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1902718/trouble-paradise-villagers-beautiful-sai-kung
