Page 62 - TPB Report 2018-20_EN

3 Other Major Work of 2018-2020

Work Facilitating Operation

Amendments to Definitions of Terms used in Statutory Plans and Board Use Terms

The Board on 11 January 2019 promulgated the revised Definitions of Terms used in Statutory Plans

(DoT) to allow greater flexibility for uses/activities of ‘art studio’ that would not attract visiting members
of the public by providing direct services or goods in industrial buildings in “I”, “OU(B)” and “Residential
(Group E)” zones. Given that district health centres are similar to medical consulting rooms in nature and
modern markets are akin to general retail stores in operation, the Board Use Terms and DoT of ‘shop and
services’ were revised to include ‘health centre’ and ‘market’. The DoT of ‘public clinic’ was also revised
to include health centres coordinated by the Government. Besides, the DoT of ‘telecommunications
radio base station’ was revised to provide flexibility on the location for such installation.

Revised Application Forms and Guidance Notes

With a view to improving user-friendliness and facilitating information retrieval, the Board in April
2019 promulgated a revised set of application forms and guidance notes for applications submitted

under sections 12A and 16 of the Ordinance. The major revisions include the use of checkboxes for
selection of options, standardising and simplifying data input, and revising the declaration statement
on uploading the application materials to the Board’s website. More detailed explanations on the
submission requirements are provided in the guidance notes.

Release of Digital Data of Statutory Plans

In line with the Government’s open data policy, the Board on 22 July 2019 started releasing the digital
planning data of statutory plans currently in force as open data for free public access. The digital planning
data covered planning scheme areas, land use zonings, building height control and amendments to

statutory plans. The publication of planning data in digital format would allow for data analysis and
compilation, which could enable the preparation of planning applications and carrying out of research.

Assessment Criteria

Since the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme by the Government and the two power
companies, i.e. The Hongkong Electric Company, Limited and CLP Power Hong Kong Limited, to
provide incentives for investment in renewable energy in 2018, the Board has received a number of
related planning applications for the installation of standalone Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) system for the
FiT scheme. To facilitate assessment of applications for installation of SPV system, the Board on 21
July 2020 promulgated a set of assessment criteria setting out the requirements on various aspects
including technical feasibility, land use compatibility and no significant adverse impacts relating to

environment, drainage, sewerage, traffic, geotechnical safety, landscape and visual, etc.

60 TOWN PLANNING BOARD REPORT 2018-2020