CPU members: Small Taipa Hill hotel project ‘unsuitable’

Several members of the Urban Planning Committee (CPU) have raised issues with the building of a 4-star hotel unit at the Jardins de Lisboa in the Small Taipa Hill area. The design company yesterday presented the amended development project to CPU members.

The CPU have not yet the discussed the regular Urban Conditions Plan (PCU) but was only examining a preliminary presentation of the project. The committee chairman, Lai Weng Leong, said he anticipated the project would be a “polemic one” requiring “a wide collection of public opinion.”

An amendment of a previously submitted plan was yesterday presented to the CPU to elicit the opinions of the CPU members about the project.

The design team highlighted the changes made according to a previous opinion from the now Land and Urban Construction Bureau (DSSCU) that had rejected the original plan because it implied a severe excavation of the hill.

That matter has been fixed in the new project proposal with the excavation area changing from the previous 28,000 cubic meters to the current 3,529.

The amendment has forced significant changes to the project, including the elimination of a basement level and a different style of construction for the building foundations.

While recognizing the efforts of the design company in reducing the excavation of the hill, several members expressed more general concerns regarding the location of a hotel unit and its operation, as well as its relation with the neighboring area composed of residential units only.

Several members, including Christine Choi, architect and president of the board of directors of the Architects Association of Macau, suggested that in cases like this, which concern the “greater good” of both the maintenance of the natural environment of Small Taipa Hill and the “peace of the residents” of the Jardins de Lisboa, the land plot (M3) owners’ land right’s should be transferred to another “more convenient” location. Several members agreed and suggested the project could potentially be transferred to the Zone A of the new landfills “where it could benefit from better conditions.”

Other comments also noted the difficulties that a hotel in this location would have in terms of transportation and some even said that the draft project looks “unappealing.” All in all, members expressed opinions against the potential approval of the PCU for this hotel in the current location.

According to the description from one design company representative, the hotel unit would have two towers separated by a public area and be just 10 meters above the street level at the Rua Cidade de Lisboa.

At the top level, the building would have only six stories and would be level with the height of the residential building Windsor Arch.

Although not all the members have expressed opinions on the project, the majority seemed to agree that the best solution is not to build anything on the hill, with the government having to compensate the land rights of the owners of the land plot in another area of Macau and potentially on the Zone A.

One more school approved on Zone A, CPU members call for plot merging

The Urban Planning Committee (CPU) yesterday discussed and approved the construction of another school at Zone A of the new landfills.

The Urban Conditions Plan approval is related to the land plot B2 of Zone A where a school will be built in a plot with an area of 18,742 square meters divided into two sections.

At the CPU meeting, some members expressed common traffic concerns regarding the pick-up and drop-off of students to school, suggesting, as in previous discussions, the establishing of a pick-up and drop-off area underground.

Some members also noted that the B1 plot has also been approved for a school facility and called on the government to better use the resources and to merge the plots that have similar functions.

The CPU chairman noted that merging the plots at this stage is not an easy task and underground works for placing the technical galleries and other piping networks have already been built and planned in a certain manner, adding that to change the layout of the Zone A now would force all the plans back to the drawing table.  RM