Urban Development Essay

The congested and disordered living environment had raised many social and environmental problems within the communities. In order to speed up the redevelopment process of the many decayed urban areas, the Land Development Corporation (LDC) was so set up as the sole agent of the Government in 1988. The statutory duty of LDC was responsible for the redevelopment of buildings only without other functions of urban renewal such as rehabilitation. Government-led urban renewal started to emerge. LDC was known for its public-private partnership model cooperating with the private developers in conducting land development. Due to its profit-oriented characteristic by reason of a meager loan of $100 million from the Government, areas that can ensure quick return were selected for redevelopment commercially. Many projects completed in the Phase II redevelopment were small in scale (Appendix I for the list of completed projects). Later, LCD showed their intention to redevelop 25 sites in 1998 which were taken up by URA ultimately. Many dilapidated areas were at a standstill. LDC had been criticized as incapable of delivering urban renewal successfully. The plan as a whole only expected people to move out

Government policy of urban planning does have great influences on the urban development in terms of the development scale and procedural efficacy. Urban planning in Hong Kong can be traced back to the early 1920s. The first planning establishment was the Town Planning Committee formulated in 1922 when planning was new to the colonial government. Based on the principle of sustainable development, town planning seeks to bring about an organized, efficient and desirable place for the community to live and work in (Information Services Department, 2014). Due to the limited resources in Hong Kong, town planning undertakes a very important function to seek for the balance use of