Page 35 - URA Annual Report 2021-22

Urban renewal is a lengthy process. Two decades on, Hong Kong is still in the first cycle of urban renewal with a lot of dilapidated buildings remain to be redeveloped.
Over the past six years, URA has progressively steered towards a holistic and comprehensive approach to urban regeneration, moving from the conventional project-led model of building-by-building redevelopment to one that is ‘planning-led, district-based’, allowing holistic planning of land uses of the old district as a whole, maximising the planning and social benefits to improve the overall built environment.
At the same time, the URA has begun trialling an integrated approach amalgamating the urban renewal strategies by ways of Redevelopment, Rehabilitation, pReservation and Revitalisation (4Rs), in implementing its redevelopment projects in Kowloon City, putting its effort in the integration of new and old cityscapes, the reprovisioning of government facilities and the preservation of local characteristics.
By consolidating the planning of projects and its vicinity under the integrated approach, along with the trailblazing use of new planning tools, the overall built environment and public facilities in the areas will be enhanced as a whole, and connectivity between the old and new districts will also be strengthened. The pilot approach will also assist the owners of the buildings in the neighborhood of the project site to carry out rehabilitation and preventive maintenance work to maintain building conditions. Place-making initiatives will also be introduced to revitalise the areas, so as to integrate the old and new cityscapes upon redevelopment.
The success of urban renewal also hinges very much on building rehabilitation. We seek to understand the main challenges faced by owners that hindered their willingness in carrying out building maintenance, so as to formulate specific strategies targeting public and stakeholders, and step up promotional efforts to encourage them to carry out building maintenance and management on their own.
In parallel, our two forward looking strategic studies have opened up new avenues for tackling critical issues of urban decay. URA is committed to taking forward the recommendations of these studies and set more ambitious targets on taking more challenging and complex projects which have the potential of bringing greater benefits to the community.
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