The Requirement

An educational facility located in a suburban district of Hong Kong was set for closure. While typically, in Hong Kong, educational facilities fall under a Private Treaty Grant and are built on government –owned land, this particular site was purchased from the government decades ago at market price. As such, the owner was not required to return the land upon the school’s closure and an opportunity for a new development had arisen.

BMT was appointed by the customer to deliver a scope of services, including:

• Environmental Assessment
• Sewerage Impact Assessment
• Air Ventilation Assessment
• Overshadowing Analysis
• LEED and BEAM Plus Pre-Assessments and Sustainable Building Design

Our Approach

The customer had expressed an interest to redevelop the site for residential use. This posed a few challenges. Firstly, the site falls under the G/IC (Government, Institution or Community) zone, indicating its designation for such uses or the future provision of G/IC facilities. Additionally, the site was situated next to a busy road causing in significant traffic noise impact to the site and other surrounding areas.

To tackle these challenges, BMT proposed a mixed-use development consisting of a sports training centre and a residential tower. This development scheme fulfilled both the client’s wishes and the requirements for G/IC under Hong Kong’s Town Planning Ordinance and, furthermore, the proposed zoning could retain the current G/IC. Addressing the potential noise issue implicating BMT took a number of traffic noise mitigation measures in order to achieve 100% compliance of the local road traffic noise standards for the residential uses:

• Residential tower set back from main road, protected by the sports centre situated in between
• Operable/ fixed window arrangement

Outcome and Benefits

Through a keen understanding of local regulations from a highly experienced team, BMT assisted in putting forth a development proposal which met the needs of the client whilst complying with the G/IC zoning requirements. Additionally, BMT’s savvy approach to managing the application enabled a planning control mechanism which provided stakeholders with the assurance that the proposed noise mitigation measure would be fully implemented.