Development Proposal
Proposal Background
With an area of only 1,100 sq. km and a hilly terrain, Hong Kong is short of usable land (total is about 210 sq. km or 21,000 hectares only). According to published government sources, from 1950 to 2017, a total of 6,318 hectares of land in Hong Kong were produced by reclamation of the sea, accounting for about 30% of the usable land. As the role of reservoirs in portable water supply is diminishing, the author has come up with a bold proposal to reclaim some land from a major reservoir, itself reclaimed from the sea, to build affordable, dignified and comfortable homes for citizens, and construct a smart, green and eco-friendly new town.
The Plover Cove Reservoir has an area of about 1,200 hectares. Based on a plot ratio of 2, it is estimated that the reclaimed land can provide 300,000 flats of 650 sq. ft., plus 65 million sq. ft. for non-domestic purpose such as commercial buildings, public facilities, research centers, university campus, hospitals, shopping malls, etc. The total land value can be up to $775 billion, assuming average land price at $3,000 per sq. ft. This amount would be sufficient to build all the necessary rails, highways, cross-sea tunnels, as well as site formation works and infrastructure construction.