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This dissertation, Speed of Plan Making for Sustainable Development: Determinants and Implications by Chi-kin, Ho, 何志堅, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled Speed of plan making for sustainable development: Determinants and implications Submitted by Ho Chi Kin for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in September 2007 This thesis investigates the evolution of statutory town plan making in Hong Kong within a sustainable development perspective. An exhaustive study of all Outline Zoning Plans, prepared from 1976 to 2005 under the Town Planning Ordinance, for what has become known as the Metro Area was conducted. An interesting finding is that the speed of plan making varied not only by time, but also by district. The research questions of this thesis centred on the determinants and implications of the observed phenomena. The determinants of the speed of plan making were investigated by an examination of statutory town plans and a multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that: (1) one of the driving factors for issuing Outline Zoning Plans was the participation of the public via the objection mechanism under the amended Town Planning Ordinance and (2) the speed of plan making was faster in districts with more rezoning requests and a higher incidence of externalities. Public participation and the tackling of externalities are key concerns for sustainable development. In this light, it can be said that sustainable development-related concerns have been taken into account in plan making and are determinants of the speed of plan preparations in Hong Kong. However, what is more interesting is the implication of the variations in the speed of plan making. A test conducted on the relationship between the returns on residential property and the number of statutory town plans revealed that the speed of plan making was negatively correlated with the residential property returns. This meant that government planning legislation has incurred certain economic costs, not to mention that Hong Kong's planning law has infringed upon private property rights predicated on land leases without due compensation. This result also sheds light on the rationale of libertarian critics of interventionist zoning and planning. The significant negative relationship between the number of changes in town plans and returns on residential property in a district can be interpreted as the market's vote against government planning intervention. The most important message of this thesis is that statutory plan making could have an adverse impact on such important aspects of sustainable development as the quest for certainty, the concern over equity and the provision of room for innovation. This empirical study on statutory zoning, given the multi-dimensional nature of the sustainable development concept, illuminates the Hayekian knowledge problem inherent in government planning. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3898892 Subjects: City planning - China - Hong KongSustainable development - China - Hong Kong

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