Tagged: Caravans
TPB still weighing Pui O caravan park after more than 250 responses
A plan to convert part of Pui O wetland into a caravan park is still under consideration by the Town Planning Board (TPB), three months after the original deadline.
TPB has given the owner, the JK Group, three extensions as it has responded to objections to its plans to build a caravan park and hobby farm across more than 1ha of wetland between Pui O and Ham Tin.
The TBP has received 252 comments on the plan since it was filed on May 16.
The site of the holiday camp covers wetland that provides critical habitat for the Ham Tin buffalo herd, flying in the face of the government’s intention to protect it.
The Sustainable Lantau Blueprint, unveiled in June, includes preservation of the Pui O wetland as part of its conservation plan.
After the original deadline of June 23 the deadline for public comment and submissions from the applicant was extended to July 28, after which the JK Group updated its traffic assessment and sewage facility proposal.
The deadline was then put back to August 18, when the company submitted new plans for tree preservation and landscaping and “further justifications on excavation of land for sewage facilities.”
The TPB received 136 comments before the initial deadline, 86 following the first extension and 30 after the second extension.
The current deadline for comments is September 29. The TPB has set a tentative date for discussion on October 27.
The JK Group owns a number of Pui O businesses , including Garden Plus, Garden Cafe, JK Properties and JK Club.
Pui O wetlands now facing caravan park threat
A caravan park is the latest threat to Pui O’s shrinking wetland.
A local landowner has applied to build a “temporary” caravan and camping ground and “ancillary hobby farm” on a number of allotments south of South Lantau Rd behind the Garden Plus store.
Much of the area covered by the application is currently open wetland and buffalo habitat.
It is a designated Coastal Protection Area (CPA), but Edward Yiu, Legco member for the architectural sector, said he believed a loophole allowed the operation of caravan parks in CPA zones.
The proposed site
If approved, it would be one more blow to Pui O’s besieged wetland, which is steadily contracting as a result of dumping and creeping development.
It would also be South Lantau’s third on-site caravan park. A dozen vans have been available for hire on CPA-zoned land at Tong Fuk since 2013. A second one opened at Cheung Sha last year, though it did not apply for TPB approval until February.
Welcome Beach caravan park, Cheung Sha
The latest application was lodged with the Town Planning Board on May 16. Just two weeks later the government released its Lantau blueprint that stressed “conservation of Pui O wetland” as one of its prime conservation objectives. But the report went no further than saying steps to conserve the ecologically sensitive site “are being explored.”
The area under application takes an unusual shape for a caravan park, with two sections in the middle of the site excised. Three smaller sections beyond the main boundary are included, possibly for the hobby farm.
Tong Fuk Caravans
The Pui O wetland, a marshy territory of around a dozen hectares between South Lantau Road and the coast, is not a natural wetland but is abandoned and previously heavily polluted agricultural land that has been regenerated by the presence of buffalo. The combination of buffalo waste and the churning of the soil by their hooves in the past 20 years has brought the wetland to life and created Lantau’s iconic tourist attraction.
Despite the name, the CPA does not provide any protection. It has no enforcement mechanism. As a result, the buffalo habitat has been incrementally shrinking every year. Local environmentalists and senior officials agree that the most likely solution is for the government to bring the wetlands under protection by doing a land swap. They see the land swap at Sha Lo Tung, aimed at protecting its diverse dragonfly species, as a significant precedent. It is the first of its kind for conservation purposes in Hong Kong.
Under Hong Kong’s kafkaesque planning laws, only land designated for development can be protected by the Environment Protection Department (EPD).
The EPD cannot prevent dumping on privately-owned wetland but in an equally surreal twist it has the power to approve dumping. A judicial review is now before the courts challenging the EPD’s director’s green-lighting of dumping on Pui O wetlands.
The case has been heard by Justice Au but the ruling is not expected to be handed down for several months.
Photo (top): Proposed caravan site, Pui O
NOTE: This story has been updated to include the announcement of the Sha Lo Tung land swap.
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