Hong Kong Golf Club takes swing at ‘deficient’ impact report for public housing bid over missing ecological data
- Senior Counsel Benjamin Yu, club’s representative in legal challenge, says environmental report failed to properly assess site’s ecological value or address public concerns
- Legal battle may determine if authorities can build public housing on portion of city’s oldest golf course in Fanling
A report assessing the environmental impact of building public flats on part of Hong Kong’s oldest golf course failed to properly determine the site’s ecological value or address public concerns as required, a court heard on Thursday.
The Hong Kong Golf Club last year launched a judicial challenge against the director of environmental protection’s conditional approval of the environmental impact assessment report, which could allow for the development of public housing on the Old Course in Fanling.
Senior Counsel Benjamin Yu Yuk-hoi, the club’s legal representative for the case, described the report as “deficient”, adding that the ignored compliance requirements constituted a “technical breach”.
He also noted the area was home to 80 potentially “old and valuable trees”, which were identified as a serious constraint to development in a 2017 feasibility study report commissioned by the Civil Engineering and Development Department.
Yu said the trees listed in the 2017 report were not mentioned in the other document, despite authorities being required to review sensitive landscape resources when conducting such assessments.
The Development Bureau maintains a register of old and valuable trees residing on unleased government land located in built-up areas or tourist attraction spots in village areas.
The nearly 500 trees on the list have a protected status and can only be removed under exceptional circumstances.
Yu also said the environmental impact assessment report had not properly addressed public concerns about the trees, as required under a technical memorandum.
The senior counsel noted the report left out the assessment of the land’s hydrological conditions, which are critical to the survival of the critically endangered Chinese swamp cypress in the area.
The ones at the site had been there for more than a century and accounted for 15 per cent of the species’ entire population in the world, he added.
Yu expressed doubts over the report’s conclusion that building public housing there would have an insignificant effect on the Chinese swamp cypress in the area, noting no analysis or assessment was cited in the document.
Yu described the failure to assess the project’s possible hydrological impacts or meet the requirements of the technical memorandum as constituting a “cardinal sin”.
“The study brief called for the study to be made. The additional information request called for the same study to be made, but it was still not done,” Yu said. “It is difficult to see why the [report] missed the requirement.”
The lawyer also flagged a huge discrepancy in the number of bat species identified by the Civil Engineering and Development Department, the club and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
The Civil Engineering and Development Department only identified one species, concluding the public housing estate would have a minor impact on bats in the area.
In comparison, a six-month survey by the club uncovered 15 species. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department identified 17 in a single month.
Yu questioned why neither department had noticed the discrepancy and followed up, adding: “The silence is deafening.”
He added that authorities had “bypassed public consultation” as the report was approved without giving residents a chance to comment on additional information submitted later, which included some new assessments and mitigation measures that were not shared publicly.
While authorities attributed the move to time limitations, Yu stressed the relevant ordinance did not specify a time frame for publishing such a report.
“The public participation was not full and meaningful on this vital issue concerning the ecology,” he said.
Hong Kong development authorities initially planned to build about 12,000 public housing on 9.5 hectares (23.5 acres) of the golf course, part of the 32 hectares of land taken back by the government last September.
In light of the club’s judicial challenge, the court has imposed an interim order halting any government decisions arising from the environmental impact assessment report.
