8 January, 2010
The three-month Stage 1 Public Engagement (PE) exercise for the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) that began on 8 October 2009 drew to a close yesterday (7 January 2010), generating a wealth of input that will help the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (the Authority) develop a dynamic arts and cultural district.
The purpose of the Stage 1 PE exercise is to gauge the public and stakeholders’ aspiration and expectations on the planning of the WKCD as a whole as well as their requirements on the facilities of the arts and cultural venues. Views on programmes and education-related activities in the future WKCD have also been collected, as the Authority is fully aware that, other than physical facilities, the software side of the WKCD is equally important to making the WKCD a success.
By 7 January, the Authority has received about 6000 completed questionnaires, 198 written submissions and 96 entries via the Facebook group set up by the Chairman of the Authority’s Consultation Panel. During the Stage 1 PE, the Authority has held three public forums, two dedicated forums for students and youth respectively, and 54 focus group meetings.
Professor Stephen Cheung Yan-leung, Chairman of the Authority’s Consultation Panel, was encouraged by the enthusiastic and positive response of the public. "We have received many constructive and innovative views from the public as well as a wide range of stakeholders. I would like to thank all the people who have participated in the public engagement events, and given valuable views to the Authority" said Professor Cheung.
"This Stage 1 PE exercise launched by the Authority is distinct from the last round of public consultations on WKCD carried out by the Government in 2007 in which people’s views were sought mainly on whether an integrated arts and cultural district should be built, and received some 3,100 completed wish cards and some 140 items of other written submissions. Based on the consensus built in the last round of public consultation, this time we are engaging the public to translate the concept of the WKCD into reality," added Professor Cheung. The views collected during the Stage 1 PE exercise will be collated and analysed by the Public Policy Research Institute of the Polytechnic University. The report on the Stage 1 PE will be available to the public in March 2010.
"Once the Report is available, it will be discussed by the Consultation Panel and the Board of the WKCD Authority," Professor Cheung said, "The Authority is keen to know the community’s aspiration and expectations on the planning of the WKCD and their preferences on how the 40-hectare piece of land should be planned in order to carry out the mission of the WKCD and to serve the community. WKCD will be a people-oriented district with a distinctive character."
"The Authority expects the three Conceptual Plan Consultants to make good use of the views collected in the Stage 1 PE exercise and prepare their conceptual plan options incorporating the community preferences with their own professional expertise and creativity. Indeed, the Conceptual Plan Consultants will be required to produce a statement to state how the public views have been taken into account in the conceptual plan options that they have prepared," said Professor Cheung.
The three Conceptual Plan Consultants and the Project Consultant appointed by the Authority have attended all the PE activities and meetings to listen to the views of the public and stakeholders directly.
To uphold transparency, all the meetings of the Stage 1 PE Exercise are held in public with audio recording uploaded to the WKCDA website (www.wkcda.hk). Transcripts of all meetings will be uploaded to the website for public reference.
The three Conceptual Plan Consultants will prepare one conceptual plan option each, taking into account the views collected at the Stage 1 PE exercise. These conceptual plan options will be put forward for seeking public and stakeholders’ views during Stage 2 of the PE exercise this summer. At that stage, the Authority will seek public views on the three options, including which option is the one most acceptable to the public and can serve as the foundation for preparing the Development Plan (DP) for the WKCD. Features of the other two options preferred by the public will also be incorporated.
Stage 3 of the PE exercise is planned for 2011. At that stage, the Project Consultant appointed by the Authority will have developed the conceptual plan option selected by the Authority into a detailed DP, conducted related technical feasibility studies and prepared the detailed Schedules of Accommodation for various arts and cultural facilities. The Authority will seek views from the public and stakeholders on the detailed DP in Stage 3. Taking into account public views, the Authority will finalise the detailed DP for submission to the Town Planning Board (TPB) for consideration.
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