Treating the Symptoms - A Critical Review of ... - Civic Exchange

Left: The Blue House on Stone Nullah Lane in Wan Chai. The current building cluster dates from the 1920s, but the site has variously been used as a Chinese hospital, a temple to the God ofMedicine “Wah To”, a martial arts school, and an osteopathy clinic (still existing).Stand-alone preservation projectsSo far, the URA has completed just one stand-alone preservation project — Western Market,an Edwardian market building in Sheung Wan. The LDC acquired it and converted it intoa tourist attraction in 1991, and it was further refurbished by the URA in 2003. The URAthen tendered out its management to a private company in return for a share of the profits, 207an arrangement which guarantees the URA a minimum financial return.The URA attempted to apply the same method to four new preservation projects, all of theminvolving tenement buildings and shop-houses. However, acquiring a disused governmentbuilding has very different political and social implications from acquiring privately-ownedbuildings with existing users. Civil society groups reacted negatively to the idea of preservingbuildings at the expense of people working and living in them.115The original plan for the Blue House involved relocating the residents and converting itinto museums and a café, but after community groups and district councillors objected,the URA revised its plans to allow residents to rent back their old flats under a partnershiparrangement with the Housing Association. 208 The announcement of preservation projectson Prince Edward Road West and Argyle Street attracted similar complaints because theplans would involve displacing some of the existing businesses, such as hardware and homeappliance shops, arts and crafts schools, dance studios, and film production houses. Of theHK$1.33 billion the URA has allocated for the two projects, just HK$100 million will bespent on the actual restoration. The rest will be used for acquisition and compensation. 209It is ironic that the URA’s attempts to meet community aspirations for more heritagepreservation were met with such controversy. The underlying problem is that Hong Konglacks the legislative and policy mechanisms to implement other approaches to preservationsuch as down-zoning, enforceable listing, subsidies, or development rights transfers. TheURA was set up as a land assembly machine, whose main policy tool was resumption. It isnot the right tool for delicate preservation projects where the goal is to preserve communitiesas well as buildings.