URA

OPERATING REVIEW 27 being carried out to finalise the conclusion on heritage significance before making any recommendation on preservation measures. The AIA report will be submitted to the AMO when the archaeological excavation and assessment are completed approaching the end of 2018. Facilitating Services Under the URS, owners are entitled to request the URA’s consultancy/advisory service on assembling their titles for redevelopment. The Facilitating Services (Pilot Scheme) was commenced in 2012; and following a review, the URA has introduced refinements to the Pilot Scheme since November 2015 that included increasing to ten projects which can be handled at any one time. As at 31 March 2018, a total of 34 applications for facilitating services (30 for residential buildings and four for industrial buildings) have been received. One application was successfully processed, with all property interests sold by auction. The joint sale of property interests for four applications were put on the market but failed to reach a successful sale. Of the remaining applications, 27 either failed to fulfil the application criteria or were terminated for failing to reach the required threshold for joint sale whilst two applications (including one industrial building and one residential building) are being handled. A pilot scheme for building owners under the Civil Servants’ Co-operative Building Society Scheme and Government Built Housing Scheme was launched in May 2016. Since its commencement, three applications have been selected as projects for implementation. By 31 March 2018, one project failed to reach the participation rate threshold, and the remaining two projects are in progress. Subsidised Sale Flats In response to the Chief Executive’s 2015 Policy Address requesting the URA to help increase the supply for Subsidised Sale Flats (SSF), the URA identified 338 units in the Kai Tak Development for the SSF scheme. Among those, the purchases of 322 SSF have been completed, and the flats were handed over to the purchasers. In April 2017, the URA sold the remaining 16 unsold SSF in the open market at prevailing market prices. The watchtower and village wall remains at the southwest corner of the Nga Tsin Wai village. the public open space as well as the low-level podium, where a convenient pedestrian accessway will connect the local district to the mid-level escalator. The development tender for Site C was awarded in October 2017 and construction will commence shortly. The whole complex in H18 will form one of the three strategic nodes under the URA’s “CONET” place-making concept in Central and Western district. Staunton Street/Wing Lee Street, Sheung Wan In response to the motion passed by the Central & Western District Council, and according to the latest planning intention, the URA will liaise with relevant Government departments to explore alternative urban renewal approaches for the project. As part of place- making initiatives in Central (namely “CONET”), the URA will also explore lining up this area with the nearby nodes, including Pak Tsz Lane Park, which will expand the “node- path-district” concept to cover a wider community. Nga Tsin Wai Village After site clearance completed in March 2016, an Archaeological Impact Assessment (AIA) was undertaken by licensed archaeological professionals, who revealed during the process the foundation remains of old village walls and watchtowers at some excavated locations. To better ascertain the archaeological significance and conditions of the foundation remains, the URA liaised with the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) to extend the excavation areas via a new AIA license application, which was later approved in February 2018. Further excavation and field investigation are