2.1 Location and Scale of Project
2.1.1 The Project site is located at a slope next to the entrance staircase of the existing Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery with a total area of 232.5m². An elevated platform of around 225m2 supported by structural columns will be constructed to accommodate some 790 niches (one 46 columns x 10 tiers and one 33 columns x 10 tires), with internal dimension of each niche being 200mm(W) x 210mm(H) x 410mm(D). All the niches will be in outdoor setting. The ancillary facilities like a joss paper burner (with a fresh water tank and a sewage holding tank for supporting its operation) and planters will be provided as well.
2.1.2 A site access of 7.5m2 will be constructed just outside the cemetery boundary. The site access area has however been minimized to allow only pedestrian access without compromising the wheelchair access requirement.
2.1.3 To minimize nuisance to the surrounding sensitive receivers, the operation hour of the joss paper burner will be from 8:30am to 5:30pm. No other fixed plant is expected during operation.
2.1.4 The location plan and preliminary layout plan of the Project are shown in Figures 2.1 and 2.2, respectively.
2.2.1 The existing Permanent Government Land Allocation (PGLA) of around 8,400 m2 for the Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery was granted in March 1987 and designated for public cemetery use. The existing PGLA for the Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery, as well as the proposed enlargement of the PGLA to construct the site access, fall within the Lantau South Country Park and are zoned “Country Park (CP)” on the Approved South Lantau Coast Outline Zoning Plan No. S/SLC/19.
2.3 The Need and Justification of the Project
2.3.1 Since the 1970s, the Government has been encouraging cremations instead of coffin burials, resulting in a rising demand for columbarium facilities and an upsurge of private columbaria. As mentioned in Section 1.1, with a growing and ageing population in Hong Kong, the numbers of deaths and cremations have been rising gradually year by year, leading to a corresponding increase in the demand for public niches. In recent years, there have been public concerns over the shortage in supply of public niches. The Legislative Council also expressed grave concern about the supply of public niches in Hong Kong and urged the Government to substantially increase the supply in the light of demographic changes.
2.3.2 There is currently no public columbarium facility on Lantau Island. Local villagers and residents in Lantau Island of Islands District can only choose from public niches in Peng Chau or Lamma Island (in addition to NT/Urban niches) if cremation is adopted. In view of the great demand of public niches in Mui Wo and Lantau Island at large, the Islands District Council Members and the Mui Wo Rural Committee strongly requested public niches be provided on Lantau Island to cope with the need of local villagers and residents.
2.3.3 Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery site is one of the 12 batch one sites that were announced by the Government on 6 July 2010 when it launched the first public consultation on review of columbarium policy. The site is supported by the Islands District Council, the Lantau Area Committee and the Mui Wo Rural Committee.
2.3.4 In this regard, FEHD proposed the Project to cope with the need of local villagers and residents in Lantau Island. The benefit of the Project is described in Section 2.6 and scenarios with and without the Project are provided in Section 2.7.
2.4 Consideration of Alternative Options
2.4.1 In the course of studying the feasibility of columbarium development at Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery, FEHD has explored with the locals the feasibility of building niches at a number of alternative sites in Lantau Island, including sites identified in Luk Wu, Wong Lung Hang (2 sites), old Tung Chung Road Cheung Sha Waterworks Ex-quarter, near Tai O Cemetery (2 sites) and helipad at Mui Wo. However, they were all found unsuitable for columbarium development owing to different reasons such as incompatibility with the surroundings, potential adverse impacts on the natural environment, traffic management and road safety concerns, geotechnical constraints, difficulty to provide Barrier Free Access (BFA), etc. After a series of site visits, preliminary feasibility studies and prolonged discussions, the locals insist further exploring the feasibility of developing columbarium at the original Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery site and press FEHD to forge ahead with the Project. The proposed niches development in Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery has been fully supported by the local community, the Islands District Council, the Lantau Area Committee and the Mui Wo Rural Committee.
2.4.2 Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery site is one of the 12 batch one sites that were announced by the Government on 6 July 2010 when it launched the first public consultation on review of columbarium policy, the niches to be provided in the Project are targeted for local villagers and residents on Lantau Island. To consider other sites outside Lantau Island for the Project is thus not applicable.
2.4.3 Even if other suitable new sites in the Lantau Island can be identified, it is not expected that new niches in these areas can be developed within a short time as around two-thirds of land on Lantau is delineated as country park area. By contrast, the existing Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery site is a developed site supported with the necessary transport network requirement.
2.4.4 The development of new niches at a new or remote site will carry environmental dis-benefits. By comparison, the impact of such dis-benefits is relatively less significant for development of the existing Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery and will result in additional environmental benefits.
2.4.5 Human activities already exist at the current site in Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery and in the vicinity. As such, the impact of the proposed Project on the local environment would be minimal, compared with a new development on a greenfield site. The presence of a new small scale columbarium with minimal ancillary facilities will have insignificant effect to the existing Lai Chi Yuen area.
2.4.6 FEHD has once explored a number of development options for the extension of Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery (refers to Appendix 2.1) but the BFA requirement involves substantial encroachment onto the virgin country park area. On the advice of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) that the columbarium should be built within the cemetery boundary as far as possible, FEHD eventually identified the currently proposed site within the Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery with minimal area outside the cemetery boundary. The proposed development options (Schemes 1 to 4) and the major concerns of each option are summarised in Table 2.1. Owing to the limited footprint of the site and the BFA requirement, terraced platform design was not proposed to avoid the need of bulky ramps connecting the platforms to provide a barrier free access.
Table 2.1 Summary of the Designs Schemes of the Proposed Extension of the Existing Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery
|
|
Scheme 1 |
Scheme 2 |
Scheme 3 |
Scheme 4 |
|
Proposed Period |
~ Feb 2011 |
~ Oct 2014 |
~ Apr 2015 |
~ Oct 2015 |
|
Design |
Provide the columbarium on the existing vacant platform within the Lai
Chi Yuen Cemetery by connecting with
bulky ramps |
Construct a raised platform adjacent to the entrance of the cemetery |
Modify Scheme 2 to minimize the footprint outside the boundary of the
cemetery |
Modify Scheme 3 to address CMPB’s concerns |
|
Key Concerns of the Design |
In order to fulfil the BFA criteria, a ramp would need to be provided
along the slope (largely outside the boundary of the existing cemetery) to
connect the proposed columbarium. Due to site/engineering constraints (e.g.
the gradient of slope), the ramp would be extensive with a relatively large
footprint. |
AFCD suggested that the extension should be kept within the boundary
of the existing cemetery as far as possible. |
As the joss paper burner was proposed to be located along the boundary
adjacent to the country park, committee members of Country and Marine Parks
Board (CMPB) raised concerns over the visual impact and the risk of hill fire
incident during operation of the Project. |
N/A – the footprint of the extension outside boundary of the existing
cemetery has been minimized. The layout of the scheme has considered visual
impacts and risk of hill fire incident during the operational phase. |
|
Area outside the Existing Cemetery |
At least 275 m2 |
~212 m2 |
7.5 m2 |
7.5m2 |
|
Area inside the existing Cemetery |
~ 485 m2 |
~128 m2 |
225 m2 |
225 m2 |
|
Total Area of the Site |
At least 760 m2 |
~340 m2 |
232.5 m2 |
232.5 m2 |
2.5 Selection of Preferred Scenario
2.5.1
Based on the findings as
described above, the preferred scenario is the
extension of the Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery to accommodate some 790 niches and
ancillary facilities. It is selected for
the following reasons:
a)
Provision of new
niches at the Project site has a much less significant environmental impact in
comparison with introducing new niches to a new site;
b)
The Project site is
mainly confined to the boundary of the Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery which is
considered of compatible use;
c)
It is the most
suitable option for early implementation to meet the great demand for public
niches as soon as possible; and
d)
The footprint is
minimized and the layout design is optimized to minimize environmental impacts.
2.6.1 The Project will help to meet the great public demand for public niches, to relieve the shortage of niches in Hong Kong and to cope with the need of local villagers and residents on Lantau Island.
2.6.2 More than 96% project site area is within the existing Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery. Only the access of 7.5m2 is proposed to be constructed just outside the cemetery boundary due to lack of suitable space for accommodating it in the cemetery. Environmental impacts on surrounding sensitive receivers are minimised.
2.7 With and Without the Project Scenarios
2.7.1 As discussed in Section 2.3, the Project is to cope with the great demand of public niches in Lantau Island. If the Project does not proceed, the need of local villagers and residents existing public cannot be met. Alternative options including alternative sites in Lantau Island and outside Lantau Island have been considered as described in Section 2.4. Nevertheless, the alternative options are considered unfavourable due to the reasons such as potential adverse impacts on the natural environment and nuisance (e.g. air quality, noise, visual, etc.) to the nearby communities, incompatibility with the surroundings, etc.
2.7.2 The implementation of the Project would inevitably induce potential environmental impacts during construction and operational phases. Nevertheless, through careful consideration of various development options for the extension of Lai Chi Yuen Cemetery, the preferred option would pose much less significant environmental impacts and would be the most suitable option for early implementation to meet the demand of public niches in Lantau Island. The potential environmental impacts associated with the Project have been assessed in Sections 3 to 9 and mitigation measures have been recommended if necessary to alleviate the impacts to acceptable levels.
2.7.3 If the Project cannot be implemented, the absence of public columbarium facility on Lantau Island will continue. The Government will fail to meet the great demand for public niches from the local villagers and residents on Lantau Island, and severe criticism from the public is thus expected.
2.8.1 The main access to the Site is through the existing single track access road (two ways) connecting to the South Lantau Road. No widening is required for this access road.
2.8.2 The elevated platform will be constructed by in-situ concrete casting. The area of the proposed barrier-free site access is very small (i.e. around 7.5m2) and the required depth of excavation is expected to be less than 1.5m. The construction can be achieved by simple open cut followed by in-situ casting of the reinforced concrete retaining wall/slab. Good site practice will be adopted in order to minimize the impact to the environment during construction stage.
2.8.3 The outdoor niches will also be formed by in-situ concrete casting, with the niches block modules either in the form of prefabricated stone or precast concrete.
2.9.1 Construction of the Project will commence tentatively in February 2018 with completion in September 2019. The tentative construction programme of the Project is shown on Appendix 2.2.
2.10 Interactions with Other Projects
2.10.1 According to the latest plan, there is no concurrent project to be constructed and operated in the vicinity of the Project.