Tech firms hoping to set foot in Hong Kong’s future innovation hub will have to honour proposed design guidelines such as retaining fish ponds when they seek official approval for their plans, the government has said.
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But some Town Planning Board members told a meeting on Friday that the unclear operating model for the San Tin Technopole would bring challenges to layout design and the management of ecological efforts set out in the suggested planning guidelines.
Board member Jonathan Wong Woon-chung, a biology professor at Baptist University, noted that it remained uncertain whether the technopole would be managed by a company as a large innovation park or various technology firms, which had made planning difficult.
“In the case of a tech park, the proponent becomes the park’s management, instead of individual project proponents [tech companies]. The whole thing may be different,” he said.
“We cannot work on a good design because we do not know what the parcels are like.”
The board was discussing the proposed planning and design brief for five innovation and technology (I&T) land clusters in San Tin, accounting for 210 hectares.