Last year, Henderson Land's Kwu Tung North residential project requested the Town Planning Board (TPB) to relax the building density in response to market conditions, and the TPB will meet today to discuss the application.

The project, located at Sheung Shui Town Lot No. 263 in Fanling, is adjacent to the future MTR Kwu Tung Station. The developer has applied for a relaxation of the gross plot ratio to 6.5 and the building height restriction to 125 metres (Principal Datum, same below) for the proposed 924 residential units, which is expected to have a good chance of getting the green light from the TPB.

According to the Planning Department, the application for the development of 994 units on the site was withdrawn last year, and the number of units was reduced by about 7% to 924, mainly by reducing the number of open-plan units and increasing the proportion of 1 and 2 bedroom units.

The Planning Department said it had no objection to the proposal as the application was in line with the Government's policy to increase housing supply and the relaxed height restriction was in line with the stepped height restriction in the Kwu Tung New Development Area.

At the same time, a relaxation of the building height restriction to 125 metres for Kai Tak Area 2B Sites 3 and 4 and an increase in the gross plot ratio restriction to about 7.72 times for Site 2B Site 4 in Area 2B to provide 3,120 public housing units have also been applied for.

As the Planning Department has indicated no objection to the application, there is a good chance that the TPB will approve the application. The two applications are expected to generate a total of about 4,044 additional dwellings in future.

In addition, the Shek Kip Mei Health Centre has applied to the TPB for a relaxation of the building height restriction from 80 metres to 96 metres for the redevelopment of a 17-storey community health centre and public car park, with a total floor area of about 245,000 square feet.

The KMB Tai Po Depot has also applied for a relaxation of the building height restriction from 2 to 4 storeys for the redevelopment of a 4-storey bus depot with a total floor area of about 563,700 square feet.

The TPB also has no objection to the applications for the Health Centre and the depot, and it is expected that the applications will have a good chance of being approved by the TPB.