ABSTRACT
In this chapter a rather broad-brush approach to the history of land-use planning and urban development in Hong Kong is taken. It is quite clear however that reclamation in proximity to the urban areas has reached its limit if the port is to continue to function and any semblance of the natural harbour is to remain. Hence urban redevelopment, by far the weakest element in the government's planning strategies to date, must represent the single greatest challenge to the efficient land-use planning of the city. Hong Kong has one of the few modern planning authorities which separates planning from housing, in that the original Town Planning Ordinance of 1939 only relates to private sector development. The Town Planning Ordinance which had guided development in Hong Kong, and remained in its original form for half a century, was finally determined obsolete in 1991 and a comprehensive review of the statutory planning system was undertaken.
