[hkskyline]

Redevelopment of Pok Fu Lam school delayed
26 June 2010
South China Morning Post

The city's only school for the visually impaired has been given two more months to find another site for its services, with the Town Planning Board again delaying a decision on the school's application to turn its waterfront Pok Fu Lam campus into top-end residential blocks.

The Ebenezer School and Home for the Visually Impaired has a redevelopment agreement with developer Hang Lung Properties to turn the site into luxury flats and has repeatedly applied to the board to change the zoning of the land from "government, institution or community" to low-density residential.

The school bought the site a century ago and wants education authorities, which subsidise the school, to help find a new site.

The school first applied for rezoning last year but the board's metro planning committee decided in June that year to defer a decision on the application because committee members were concerned the school would not be able to continue its services without a relocation site.

The committee deferred its decision again yesterday, saying it would agree to the applicant's request to be given two more months to look for another site.

"We have to ensure that the provision of social services [for the visually impaired] will not be affected. We know that the issue has dragged on for more than a year, it's the last time that we will make a deferral on reaching a decision," it said.

The Pok Fu Lam school asked the Development Opportunities Office for help with the relocation last year, preferably to a new site in Sha Tin, Tai Po or Kowloon and near an MTR station.

According to the school's submission to the office, the school hoped the campus would have a gross floor area of 24,000 square metres, or about twice its present size.

But the office could not find a suitable site for the school and the Education Bureau said in March that it would not assist because the relocation was initiated by the school sponsoring body.

"The bureau will not provide any school site for relocation and will not bear any of the building or relocation costs. The school sponsoring body should bear the full responsibility of the proposed relocation," it said.

Established in 1897 by German missionary Martha Postler, the school admitted 82 pupils in the 2009-10 academic year. According to the two development plans submitted by the school to the board, it plans to build either six six-storey residential buildings or three 14-storey blocks of flats.

Law Kai-hong, principal of Haven of Hope Sunnyside School, said the Ebenezer case was unprecedented in the special school sector. "Over 90 per cent of special schools were given land by the Education Bureau for a nominal fee. So it's customary for special schools to get help from the bureau about retro-fittings if they are more than 30 years old. But the Ebenezer school owns the land. So there's no precedent for the Education Bureau to fall back on."

Requests to the school for comment were not returned yesterday and the Education Bureau said it would not comment on the case.