Keep options open on public housing sites
- As well as looking at land set aside for expansion at loss-making Disneyland, the government should quickly capitalise on brownfield areas in an attempt to ease the housing crisis
Hong Kong Disneyland has not turned a profit for four years and the sharp tourism downturn as a result of seven months of civil unrest guarantees it will be in the red for a fifth. With no certainty of when protests end and visitors overcome their reticence, the theme park’s plans surely have to be reappraised. The search for land sparked by the public housing crisis was therefore bound to turn to the 60 hectares set aside in 2000 under an agreement with the government, the majority shareholder, for future expansion. By some estimates, it is enough space for 20,000 flats able to house 80,000 people.
The public housing waiting list now averages 5.4 years for the 149,500 or so applications submitted. Authorities are under intense pressure to identify land for new housing estates, but have been criticised for not moving quickly enough. On the insistence of lawmakers, Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan has urged Disneyland to consider its social responsibility and give up the site for transitional residential use, despite a government agreement on the land being used for phase two expansion.
The contract, with a 20-year option to purchase the land, renewable for two five-year periods, specifically says that until a decision has been made, it can only be used short term for sport, cultural and recreational activities and the like. A lack of road, water and electricity infrastructure has limited its use. But while such shortcomings can readily be dealt with by a cash-rich government, there are obvious questions that have to be asked, among them what is meant by transitional housing, how long would the site be used for that purpose and, as visitors to the theme park are likely to wonder, is land in such short supply in Hong Kong that people are forced to live cheek by jowl with one of its leading tourist draws?
Increasing the number of Disneyland’s attractions has long been seen as a way to pull more visitors. Two decades have passed; the theme park has to plainly articulate its plans. But the government also has a number of public housing land options it has been slow to capitalise on, brownfield sites in the New Territories high among them, that it has to speed up resuming and developing.
