The New Macau Association (ANM), represented by its vice president, Sulu Sou, has emphasized that the public attaches great importance to the planning goals of improving quality of life and promoting sustainable urban development.
The association submitted a letter of opinion to the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau regarding the Urban Master Plan, which is currently accepting opinions under its public consultation phase. The opinion collection period for the public consultation will end on November 2.
The association’s managerial personnel have participated in their capacities as common residents in all seven public consultation sessions. According to Sou, they have tried their best to make comments at each session.
New Macau determined that livability, leisure, green space, environmental protection, and landscape conservation represented the mainstream opinions obtained from consultation sessions.
“The government must pay special attention to the wishes of the people when [working on] the Urban Master Plan,” Sou stressed. “The government also must use this as the guiding principle in order to make residents’ future lives better, so that future generations will be more determined to choose to live in Macau.”
In this respect, the ANM has also put forward a number of opinions, advocating for the substantial increase in the proportion of green space and recreational space, as well as natural reserves. Moreover, it suggests the narrow seaside green corridor should be replaced by a single large space.
Furthermore, the ANM has asked the government to connect Nam Van District CD, Nam Van and Sai Van Lakes, as well as New Urban Zone B, to build a new landmark and sustainable leisure district in the city, where strict building height limits are observed, especially in the surrounding area of Penha Hill, to ensure the integrity of the landscape between the Penha Church and the city’s oldest sea-crossing bridge.
In the association’s opinion, several other idle land plots in various districts should also be used for green areas.
The association also claimed that the links between the plans from the previous administrations and the current administration were weak. For example, Sou said, several days after the commencement of the current public consultation period, the government hinted that it had applied to the Central Government to halt the reclamation of New Urban Zone D.
However, the government did not provide any data as to why the plan should be suspended. Furthermore, the potential suspension may fall within the stipulation about “major amendments” in the Urban Planning Law. If that is the case, the public consultation may need to be rerun.
The ANM also criticized the fact that, according to the ANM, the government has never provided adequate population forecasting to examine the need for further land reclamation.
The ANM is urging the government to formulate a long-term population master policy and more strictly control the unlimited growth of the external population.
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