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The Chief Executive-in-Council has approved the draft Nam Sang Wai Outline Zoning Plan (OZP).
"The approved OZP provides a statutory land use framework to guide development and redevelopment in the Nam Sang Wai area," a spokesman for the Town Planning Board said today (October 27).
The Planning Scheme Area, covering about 600 hectares of land, is bounded by San Tin Highway and Castle Peak Road in the east, the Fairview Park in the north, Shan Pui River in the west, and Shan Pui Chung Hau Tsuen and Au Tau in the south.
The area comprises a low-lying alluvial flood plain draining into Deep Bay. It is largely rural in character with considerable amount of fish ponds and a few parcels of farm land.
Some 121.5 hectares of the continuous and contiguous fish ponds, which form an integral part of the wetland ecosystem in the Deep Bay area, is zoned "Conservation Area" to conserve their ecological value.
Some 151.3 hectares of fish ponds is zoned "Other Specified Uses" annotated "Comprehensive Development and Wetland Enhancement Area" ("OU(CDWEA)") to provide incentives for comprehensive development and/or redevelopment with conservation objectives and positive measures to enhance the ecological value and functions of the existing fish ponds or wetland under a private-public partnership approach.
To facilitate a proposed residential development with a nature reserve at Lut Chau in Mai Po, the fish ponds at Nam Sang Wai are zoned "OU(CDWEA1)". The fish ponds at Tin Fook Wai are zoned "OU(CDWEA2)".
Some 78.4 hectares of land including the areas near Tai Sang Wai, Man Yuen Chuen and Wing Kei Tsuen and the area north of the Shan Pui Road is zoned "Other Specified Uses" annotated "Comprehensive Development to include Wetland Restoration Area" to provide incentives to encourage the phasing out of the open storage and port back-up uses and to restore the degraded wetlands adjoining existing fish ponds through comprehensive residential and/or recreational development with wetland restoration and buffer proposals.
About 16.1 hectares of land is zoned "Residential (Group D)" covering Man Yuen Tsuen and two areas to the south of Kam Tin River for low-rise, low-density residential development and residential upgrading. Some 42.8 hectares is zoned "Village Type Development" to accommodate village type development and to cater for village expansion.
An area of about 3.5 hectares at Castle Peak Road - Tam Mi Section to the south-west of Mo Fan Heung is zoned "Industrial (Group D)", whereas some 5.4 hectares of land along the western side of San Tin Highway is zoned "Open Storage" to cater for the demand for open storage sites.
Some 3.4 hectares of land is zoned "Government, Institution or Community" covering the Pok Oi Hospital, a church near Au Tau Roundabout and two sites used for a gas offtake station and a low flow drainage pump. Another 8.8 hectares of land covering three sites to the west of San Tin Highway on both sides of the Kam Tin River is zoned "Open Space" to provide recreational facilities and serve as a buffer and easy access to the Kam Tin River.
The approved Nam Sang Wai OZP No. S/YL-NSW/8 is now available for public inspection during normal office hours at the Secretariat of the Town Planning Board, the Planning Enquiry Counters in North Point and Sha Tin, the Tuen Mun and Yuen Long District Planning Office, the Yuen Long District Office, the San Tin Rural Committee, the Shap Pat Heung Rural Committee, the Kam Tin Rural Committee, and the Ping Shan District Rural Committee.
Copies of the approved OZP are available for sale at the Map Publications Centres in North Point and Yau Ma Tei. The electronic version of the plan is viewable from the board's website at http://www.info.gov.hk/tpb.
Ends/Friday, October 27, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:00
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