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Opinion | Hong Kong doesn’t need homes on Fanling golf course with big housing projects under way
- The city now has the Northern Metropolis and artificial islands developments in the works, alongside a shrinking population and shorter waiting times for public housing
- Building on the Fanling site could see us lose business opportunities and prestigious golf tournaments
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The controversy over building public housing on the 112-year-old Fanling golf course erupted again last week after the Planning Department proposed a temporary change to the use of the earmarked 32-hectare site from “residential” to “undetermined”.
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This set off a barrage of debate on both social and mainstream media. It was only in May that the Environmental Protection Department approved an environmental impact report on partial development of the course for public housing.
Because of the latest change, some might wonder whether the government has had a change of heart about using a fifth of the 172-hectare course to build 12,000 public housing units, plus conservation and recreation areas. However, the Development Bureau said the change in use was only temporary and the authorities remained committed to building public housing.
Either way, this episode can serve as an interlude to re-evaluate the justifications for building housing on this vital golf course, given the risk of losing big business opportunities from the Middle East and continuing to hold prestigious golf tournaments in Hong Kong.
Let’s be realistic. The need to provide affordable homes is less urgent than before. Besides, even if the revised development plan is approved, it would still take quite some time for construction work to begin.
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For a better understanding of the issue, we need to go back to 2017. Amid complaints that homes were seriously unaffordable for the grass roots and concern over unbearably long waiting times for a public housing flat, then-chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor set about looking at ways to boost land supply.
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