High-rise Kwai Chung columbarium gets approval with 10-storey cut

A controversial proposal to build the city's first high-rise private columbarium in Kwai Chung has received approval from town planners, after the developer agreed to scale it down to 11 storeys housing some 23,000 niches.

The project will now be about half the size of the developer's original plan to build a 21-storey block accommodating 50,000 niches, after the Kwai Tsing District Council objected on the grounds that it would increase traffic in the area.

The 799 square metre site at 2-6 Wing Lap Street still needs the board's approval on rezoning. Located in an industrial district, it formerly housed a leather factory but is now vacant.

"Members found that a columbarium with 23,000 niches there would be suitable and was the maximum scale that should be allowed," Town Planning Board spokeswoman Lily Yam Ya-may said.

Despite the height reduction, the Kwai Chung project will still be the tallest of the city's private columbariums. A public columbarium in phase two of the Cape Collinson cemetery has 11 floors.

The world's tallest columbarium is in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Planning Department has found.

Phase two of the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica, built in 1983, has 14 floors and 14,000 niches, and is a tourist attraction.