Land production to be sped up

December 8, 2022

Amendments to development-related statutory procedures will be proposed to compress development timetables and speed up land production to meet society’s keen demand for land and housing, the Development Bureau said today.

 

Encompassing town planning, land resumption, reclamation, roads and railway works, the bureau stressed that the legislative amendment proposals will have a critical impact on expediting land supply.

 

For a typical project, the time required for transforming a piece of primitive land into a spade-ready site for housing development will be reduced from at least six years to four years, while for large-scale project, such as new development areas, the time required will be compressed from 13 years to seven years.

 

The bill proposes to amend the existing procedures along five directions, the bureau explained.

 

They include streamlining and shortening statutory time limits, avoiding repetitive procedures of similar nature, and providing an express mandate in the law for the Government to proceed with different procedures in parallel.

 

Moreover, the bill seeks to improve inconsistent or ambiguous arrangements, and streamline other miscellaneous processes for more effective use of public resources.

 

Taking this opportunity, the bureau also plans to strengthen the enforcement-related provisions under the Town Planning Ordinance, in order to protect more effectively rural areas with a high ecological value but subject to development pressure and risks of environmental degradation.

 

The Development (Town Planning, Lands & Works) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2022 will be gazetted tomorrow and introduced into the Legislative Council for first reading on December 14.

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