Hong Kong can still handle big golf events even after land from Fanling course is taken back, city leader John Lee says
- Chief Executive John Lee says administration is ‘ready and willing’ to lend site to competition organisers
- Government taking back 32-hectare site in September ‘no matter what’, he says
Lee’s remarks followed a warning the previous day from the organiser of a Saudi Arabia-backed golf tournament, the Aramco Team Series (ATS), that it might be forced to look for other locations for its Hong Kong round in October if the scheme went ahead.
Lee noted the club would still have two complete 18-hole courses and 10 holes for a third course after the 32-hectare site was returned.
“Our assessment is that they will suffice for holding major tournaments. So the return will not have any impact on events,” he said.
The 32 hectares of land on the Old Course is part of the 172-hectare site in Fanling leased by the private Hong Kong Golf Club. The government originally planned to build 12,000 public flats by 2029 to help tackle the city’s long-standing housing crisis.
But the project might have to be scaled down after a request by environmental authorities for woodland to be preserved. Development authorities also plan to rezone the site from residential to “undetermined” to buy time for the redesign, which will postpone the housing project by two years.
The government’s rezoning application has attracted various parties to speak for or against the housing proposal at a Town Planning Board public hearing, which started on Monday with at least five meetings arranged.
Among them was ATS championship director Vicky Jones, who warned the city risked losing the tournament and other future events if it pressed ahead with the project.
Andy Kwok Wing-leung, captain of the golf club, said at the Monday hearing it was impossible to find a substitute for the course, which he described as an “icon”.
Lee on Tuesday said the government would listen to the board’s recommendations.
“The plan, when first proposed by the last-term administration, had already received many public comments,” he said.
“Now it has entered into the public hearing procedure and the Town Planning Board will make suggestions after hearing different opinions. The government will listen to the board’s suggestions before formulating final decisions on the land.
“But no matter what the decision will be, the government will take back the land in September as scheduled.”
Lee also said the public hearings showed the city respected freedom of speech.
The board received 6,788 responses from the public last year, with an overwhelming 99.6 per cent against the plan.
Former planning director Ling Kar-kan doubled down on his criticism against the club on a radio programme on Tuesday, accusing it of “acting extreme”.
Ling said the returned land only accounted for less than 10 per cent of the golf course and questioned whether the club had spent time considering plans for hosting events on the remaining areas, given it had long known the land would be taken back.
He added the government must redevelop the Old Course if it wanted to meet its housing supply targets.
Ling said the golf club’s returned site, which was government land, did not involve land acquisition or demolition, unlike the Northern Metropolis project aiming to provide 900,000 flats near the border with mainland China.
He said this allowed for public housing construction on the site to start sooner.
Government figures show the average wait time for a public rental flat is 5.3 years.
