Page 13 - URA Annual Report 2021-22

Opening Up New Planning Opportunities and Embracing Challenges with Innovative Vision
When I took stock of the URA’s urban renewal work in 2016 at the time of taking office as Managing Director, it became clear to me that the redevelopment effort was still being outpaced by urban decay, despite the implementation of several major redevelopment projects and the huge resources committed to renewing the old districts. The conventional project-led approach of building-by-building redevelopment would no longer be an effective means of making urban renewal work sustainable.
With this in mind, I tasked the URA team with conducting a holistic and comprehensive study to look into the key issues that were accelerating the pace of urban decay in old districts. Our study found that buildings would generally start deteriorating when they reached 40 years of age, by which time their facilities would be outdated, and the deteriorating conditions would eventually affect public safety and liveability. It was also revealed that the failure of property owners to conduct maintenance work had aggravated such problems in ageing buildings.
Outdated public facilities, under-utilised streets and open spaces were also commonly found in old districts, which called for reprovisioning. Owing to a lack of land resources, however, the built environment in these old districts could only be improved through redevelopment, which entailed a laborious and prolonged process.
Moreover, the plot ratios of the sites of these ageing building clusters had generally been fully utilised, leaving only a few redevelopment projects in the market that were considered to be favourable for private developers to pursue. This lack of development potential of the ageing buildings had become a stumbling block to private market participation in redevelopment, making the pace of urban renewal slow.
Over the past six years, our URA team has been committed to addressing these issues by formulating and implementing a more holistic and forward looking approach to urban regeneration. For example, we endorsed a ‘district-based’ approach for the first time in 2016 to carry out urban renewal work in To Kwa Wan. Moving from a ‘project-led’ renewal model, we consolidated the land uses of eight individual projects within the district for restructuring and replanning, allowing holistic planning of the district as a whole and hence maximising the planning benefits to improve the overall built environment.
Managing Director’s Statement Operating Review Corporate Sustainability Management Discussion and Analysis Projects at a Glance Corporate Governance
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