Practice Note for Professional Persons No. 1/2019

Practice Note for Professional Persons
No. 1/2019

Processing and Compliance Checking of
Landscape Submissions related to Planning Applications

Purpose

  1. In approving a planning application under section 16 of the Town Planning Ordinance (Cap. 131), the Town Planning Board (TPB) may, taking into account the nature of the proposed development and its visual and landscape impacts, impose a planning condition requiring the submission and implementation of a Landscape Master Plan (LMP) or Landscape Proposal (LP).

  2. This Practice Note covers landscape submissions in the form of LMP or LP for private developments and is not applicable to landscaped areas to be handed back to Government or outside lot boundaries. Its purposes are to:

    (a) set out the general principles for requiring the submission and implementation of LMP or LP; and

    (b) explain the arrangement for processing landscape submission and compliance checking of completed landscape works for fulfilment of planning condition.

General Principles for Requiring Submission of LMP or Landscape Proposal

  1. As a general principle, landscape submission will be required either as part of a planning application as stipulated under the Outline Zoning Plan or as a planning condition of an approved application where new landscape features are necessary to meet planning objectives and/or landscape treatments are necessary to mitigate any adverse landscape/visual impacts created by the proposed development. The landscape submission can be in the form of LMP or LP, depending on the circumstances as set out below.

Submission of LMP

  1. In general, LMP will be required under the following circumstances:

    (a) developments at visually sensitive locations or in areas of special landscape character where appropriate landscape treatments are necessary to ameliorate visual impacts and/or conserve landscape resources; and

    (b) developments requiring comprehensive planning with scope for creation of new landscape features, e.g. developments within "Comprehensive Development Area" zone.

  2. The general requirements on submission of LMP are set out in the guidelines at Appendix A.

Submission of LP

  1. In other circumstances, LP, a more simplified landscape submission than LMP, may already be adequate for the nature of the proposed development which would have less significant visual/landscape impact, or mainly for visual enhancement to improve the general environment. Usually, such developments are smaller in scale or are temporary in nature such as open storage and port back-up uses.

  2. The LPs for these types of developments would normally only require the submission of proposed treatments of existing landscape resources and a Landscape Layout Plan (Appendix B) to show the conceptual building layout, overall landscape design, boundary landscape treatment and planting proposal, unless otherwise required. For open storage and port back-up uses, reference should also be made to the relevant Technical Note available in TPB website (www.tpb.gov.hk/en/).

Approval of Landscape Submission and Compliance Checking

Approval of Landscape Submission

  1. The LMP and its subsequent amendments should be prepared by a Registered Landscape Architect (RLA) registered under the Landscape Architects Registration Ordinance (Cap. 516) and be submitted to the concerned District Planning Office (DPO) of Planning Department (PlanD) for approval. For LP submission, it can be made by a RLA or the applicant/ his representative.
  2. The RLA or the applicant/ his representative will be notified of the results of their landscape submissions (LMP or LP) within six weeks from the date of receipt.

Amendment to Approved Landscape Submission

  1. After the approval of LMP or LP and before the completion of landscape works, should there be any amendments to the approved LMP or LP that fall within the scope of Class B amendments as stated in the TPB Guidelines No. 36B, the RLA or the applicant/ his representative is required to submit the updated LMP or LP and highlight the amendments to PlanD for approval and they will be notified of the results within six weeks from the date of receipt. For other minor amendments that fall within the scope of Class A amendments in TPB Guidelines No. 36B, the RLA or the applicant/ his representative should provide the updated LMP or LP with amendments highlighted to PlanD for record purpose.
  2. No separate planning application will be required for amendments made to the approved LMP or LP as a result of fulfilling the approval conditions. Should there be any disagreement over the fulfillment of the approval conditions between the RLA or the applicant/ his representative and PlanD, the matter will be submitted to TPB for consideration.

Compliance Checking of Completed Landscape Works

  1. In order to speed up the checking of compliance of completed landscape works upon approval of LMP, the applicant is required to appoint a RLA to certify that the landscape works has been implemented in accordance with the approved LMP and submit a Self-certification of Compliance (SCC) to the concerned DPO and Landscape Unit of PlanD in parallel (the SCC approach). Under the SCC approach, the RLA or the applicant/ his representative should submit the SCC together with copies of the latest approved LMP or an approved LMP with minor amendments duly coloured (if any), and photographic records of the completed landscape works to facilitate the compliance checking, if deemed necessary. A standard SCC form is at Appendix C.

  2. Sites with SCC submitted will be registered by PlanD. SCC submissions will be randomly selected for on-site compliance checking at a minimum rate of ten percent, or as considered necessary. This ratio will be subject to revision from time to time. The RLA or the applicant/ his representative will be notified if the site is selected for checking within two weeks from the date of receipt of SCC. If the site is selected, a full compliance checking will be carried out and the RLA or the applicant/ his representative will be notified of the result within six weeks from the date of receipt of SCC.
  3. If the RLA or the applicant/ his representative does not receive any response from PlanD within two weeks from the date of receipt of SCC, the implementation of the approved LMP will be deemed to have been approved and the relevant planning condition will be considered as complied with. Compliance of planning condition will be issued in writing by the concerned DPO to the RLA.
  4. If there is any obvious inadequacy observed in the SCC submission, PlanD may report such observations to the Landscape Architects Registration Board for its necessary action.
  5. For compliance checking of the completed landscape works upon approval of LP, the submission to fulfil the implementation of planning condition can be made by a RLA or the applicant/ his representative. The RLA or the applicant/ his representative can adopt the SCC approach, by following the above processing procedures for LMP submissions, as set out in paragraphs 12 to 14 above.
  6. For cases not adopting the SCC approach, the applicant/ his representative should inform the concerned DPO in writing on completion of landscape works and submit the latest approved LP with minor amendments duly coloured (if any), and photographic records of the completed landscape works to facilitate compliance checking. A full compliance checking based on the approved LP will then be carried out. The applicant/ his representative will be notified the date for site inspection (if necessary) and the result of inspection respectively within two weeks and six weeks from the date of receipt of the notification on the completion of the approved LP.

Landscape Submissions to Fulfill Both Planning Condition and Lease Condition

  1. Applicants should refer to Joint Practice Note No. 3 for landscape submission to fulfill both the planning condition and the lease condition at the same time.

Landscape Submissions in relation to General Building Plan (GBP) Submissions

  1. In GBP submissions involving development proposals with requirement of landscape submission imposed as a condition in granting planning permission, the applicant is only required to submit, prior to or at the time of GBP submission, a Landscape Layout Plan as specified in Appendix A2 for LMP submission and Appendix B for LP submission to the concerned DPO to demonstrate that the landscape provisions would not be unduly compromised by the proposed building design. If no significant conflicts are found, the GBP submission would not be recommended for rejection by PlanD for reason of non-compliance with landscape condition.

Enquiries

  1. Applicants are welcome to contact the concerned DPO and the Landscape Unit of PlanD for enquiries or pre-submission meetings on any case specific issues and special landscape matters respectively.
  2. This Practice Note takes effect from 15 May 2019.
  3. Practice Note No. 1/2004 will be superseded with effect from 15 May 2019.

(Raymond LEE)
Director of Planning
Planning Department
Date : 23 April 2019

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