LCQ10: Parking spaces in Kowloon East

     Following is a question by the Hon Frankie Yick and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Frank Chan Fan, in the Legislative Council today (November 28):

Question:

     It is learnt that in recent years, the Government has gradually resumed temporary car park sites in the Kai Tak Development Area (KTDA) for development purpose, thus aggravating the shortage of parking spaces and the problem of illegal parking in Kowloon East. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of (i) the respective numbers of the various types of parking spaces currently provided at the two temporary car park sites in KTDA which will be resumed by the end of this year and (ii) the timetable for resuming the other temporary car park sites therein;

(2) of the number of temporary car parks and the number of parking spaces currently provided on short-term tenancy sites in Kowloon East and, among such parking spaces, the respective numbers of those which are for use by medium goods vehicles, heavy goods vehicles and tourist coaches; the respective (i) current shortfall in parking spaces and (ii) numbers of parking spaces which will be added in the coming three years, in Kowloon East for these three types of vehicles; and

(3) whether it has identified sites in Kowloon East for providing new temporary car parks to alleviate the impact of resumption of the temporary car park sites; if so, of the details; if not, the measures in place to resolve the shortage of parking spaces in Kowloon East?

Reply:

President,
     
     My replies to various parts of the Hon Frankie Yick's question are as follows:

(1) In Kai Tak Development Area (KTDA), there are currently four short term tenancy (STT) car parks. The number and type of parking spaces under each STT car park are as follows:
 

"-"indicates that the STT car park does not provide parking spaces for that particular vehicle type.

     The Government plans to take back the sites for STT car parks (i) to (iii) mentioned above by the end of 2018. The remaining one is expected to operate until 2019.

(2) Currently, in Kowloon East (including Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin and Kwun Tong), there are altogether 21 STT car parks, providing a total of about 3 940 parking spaces. Among them, 860 parking spaces are for coaches and medium/heavy goods vehicles, including 187 for coaches and 673 for medium/heavy goods vehicles. According to a survey conducted by the Transport Department (TD) in June 2018, these STT car parks still have spare capacity for parking these types of vehicles.
  
     The Government has always been concerned about the supply of and demand for parking spaces for various types of vehicle, especially the parking needs of commercial vehicles (CVs). Under the current policy, the Government mainly requires the provision of parking spaces in private development projects to meet their own parking demands. Where practicable, the Government will also require developers, through land sales conditions, to provide additional public parking spaces so as to meet the parking needs of surrounding areas. For example, the Government plans to require the developer of a private development project in Kwun Tong Action Area adjoining Hoi Yuen Road and Wai Yip Street to provide no less than 200 additional public parking spaces (including 23 medium/heavy goods vehicle parking spaces and 10 coach parking spaces). Since the number of new parking spaces to be provided through the above means is contingent on the progress of individual development projects, the TD does not have specific projection on the number of such parking spaces.

(3) With the sites of the above STT car parks to be taken back soon, the Government will continue to identify alternative sites for temporary car parks. In any case, the remaining STT car parks in Kowloon East which will continue to operate will be able to accommodate all the coaches and most of the medium/heavy goods vehicles which are currently parked at the four STT car parks in Kai Tak. To cope with the parking demand of coaches and medium/heavy goods vehicles, the Government will continue to actively pursue the following measures to increase the supply of parking spaces:

(i) designating suitable on-street locations as night-time parking spaces;

(ii) where feasible, requiring developers to provide parking spaces at the higher end of the parking standards under the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines for new developments;

(iii) following the principle of "single site, multiple uses" to provide public car parking spaces in suitable "Government, Institution or Community" facilities and public open space (POS) projects. For example, the Government plans to provide about 300 public car parking spaces (including parking spaces for private cars and goods vehicles) in the basement of the POS at Sze Mei Street, San Po Kong;

(iv) providing additional parking spaces and picking up/setting down facilities for coaches; and
 
(v) where feasible, continuing to stipulate in the tenancy agreement the ratio or number of parking spaces for individual vehicle types that can be parked at STT car parks, with a view to increasing the local supply of parking spaces for medium/heavy goods vehicles.

     In addition, the TD is conducting a consultancy study to assess the parking demand of CVs in various districts and to formulate short to long term measures to address the demand.
     
Note: Since the parking spaces for these two types of vehicles are of similar size, most tenancy agreements generally do not contain mandatory requirement on the ratio of parking spaces allocated to them, and thus their parking spaces can be flexibly used among them.