Attending the invitation-only, non-public
Ex-Lamma Quarry Focus Group Meeting in English on Apr 23 as the only (?) North Lamma resident (with less than a handful of actual South Lamma residents), here are some of my notes, also based on private, frank discussions with some attendees on the Govt. side afterwards.
Re: the
Lamma Eden idea promoted in this forum above, the SCMP and some other media:
Nobody ever mentioned this or any alternate options in the sometimes frank and quite heated exchanges. Any alternatives are not being considered at all by any of the planners or Govt., housing is fully supported all the way to the very top officials of the SAR.
It'll all be housing, housing, with a little window dressing of watersports in the lake, a little "recreation area", a recreation hotel. No watersports in the bay (too dangerous), just in the lake. NO public housing, just a few Home Ownership flats.
No marina anymore, after local objections from the fish farmers. So the Baroque project stands a slightly better chance when reapplying to the Town Planning Board the not-too-distant future. The objections of ferries being too expensive for public housing tenants basically killed that former idea still supported in the Phase I consultations. A few other small changes, like the in-site layouts and external roads, but nothing major I could spot.
Environmental concerns from birdwatchers and off-island green groups were addressed solely with "mitigation measures" during construction in this "low-quality, brown-site environment of little ecological value with just very few protected species". Very critical comments from the two
South Lamma Concern Group members, the HK Institute of Urban Design, the YMCA seniors, plus Prof. Rebecca Chiu, former LegCo and Town Planning Board member.
The current exclusive tenant of the entire ELQ, the YMCA was there in full force (5?), but couldn't add a lot to the foregone-conclusion discussions besides something like, "We and the children love this area and its wildlife and we're making fine use of it all right now." They're hoping for just a few years extension of their exclusive lease which is ending this year, but almost seem resigned to having to move out in a few years the very latest?
The Govt. and South Lamma Powers-that-be are (North Lamma powers still making up their minds, seemingly pressuring for better public services before agreeing?) hell-bent on making this housing development happen. It would take MAJOR public opposition to stop it, but I don't see that happening anywhere yet, for many reasons. The planners were eager to dispel the frequently expressed opinion of
Lamma DbAY or Park Island, but weren't successful with most of the participants. Many worries about it becoming another massive failure like
Lantau Sea Ranch were expressed as well, but also shrugged off by the various Govt. reps and their consultants.
In the meantime, Village House building has started again all over South Lamma in anticipation of the crowds of construction workers moving in soon; rents still dramatically increasing down there right now, according to local residents. Building permits seem to be handed out in bunches all over North and South Lamma right now, including surrounding my new Pak Kok home and the newly-founded, future 50-house village
Tai Wan Nam, just off Power Station beach.
It'll be a major challenge to find a private developer to construct this new town and the Govt. will have to guarantee to promise to pay for all the many hundreds of millions of $s of new infrastructure first before a (probably exclusive, like dBay) developer would agree to build this new town.
Move-in date for tenants in the ELQ in
2021, but expect many years till they reach more than a few hundred, not investment-only permanent residents and all the new infrastructure of this new town/suburb will be up and running (fire station, library, clinic, waste removal, shopping centre, hotel, recreational/watersports, more regular ferries, etc.) In the meantime, all the current many reasons for Lamma's population growing less than the overall HK population - 1%/year over the last 10 years - still apply and might likely prevent people from ever moving to the ELQ.
Lamma Sea Ranch instead of the current YMCA camp/recreation site or a proposed Lamma Eden or recreational/touristic uses?
These were just a few quick notes, discuss in this ELQ forum and in the "Oppose the development in South Lamma... Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/202469039792385 I hope to see some of you in the
Public Consultation Forum (Cantonese-with-simultaneous-translation) this Sat morning, May 3 in City Hall, just beyond the Star Ferry Pier?
http://www.ex-lammaquarry.hk/eng-PublicEngagement2.htmThe Lamma-zine will be there and will continue reporting over the ELQ building years, I hope
(at least till Lamma's current and future economic realities will catch up with it again and perhaps put it out of business for good).
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