Land Development Corporation commissioned several consultants to conduct planning and development studies for four redevelopment projects such as Kwun Tong Yuen Man Fong, Wai Chai, Yen To Street, Tai Kok Tisu, and Hung Hum. Taking those studies as references, LDC will adjust or adopt a new planning model. From the reliable source, LDC requested all consultants to analyse the existing redevelopment model and give recommendation on the future planning model; also consultants have to take into account building facades, environmental projection, transportation, social economic factors, and even land resumption and financial arrangment in their studies. Therefore those studies are comprehensive in scope.

The current commissioning is differnt from the past one which just entitles one consultant to study a project. In contrast, at present LDC commissions several consultants to conduct studies on a single project. And each consultant is only responsible for a project, with the result that almost ten consultants join the redevelopment project.

Time schedule for completing those projects are tighter. While the past studying could last one year, the current one must be finished in several months. It is required that consultants have to finish their jobs in January of next year. Somone familiar with the first hand redevelopment news said that as next year LDC will be changed into Urban Renewal Authority with more finance and higher authority, LDC commissioned several consultants in an attempt to obtain more and better recommedations for the future development of Urban Renewal Authority. It is expected that the new Authority can achieve a better result for urban redevelopment.

The largest scale of redevelopment project is the one in Yuen Man Fong, Kwun Tong town centre. A certain development model has been designed for this project, its gross site area which covers 635,000 square feet. Kwun Tong redevelopment project is planned to develop into a commercial and residential area. The gross floor area for commerial site is 1,210,000 square feet while for residential site 3,960,000 square feet, able to producing 5,936 flats. Due to the impending planning studies, a new development pattern may be introduced.

An anonymous person in the land and property field said that although some projects have a certain scale of development, those development is still in a preliminary stage; besides, due to the change in market trend, re-studying a land use demand is approriate to acheive an optimal land resource allocation and meet new market needs. It is expected that after completing those studies, new studies would proceed so as to adjust the land resouce allocation to meed new needs.

The article is translated from the original one published in Hong Kong Economic Journal