Macau (MNA) – The Urban Renewal Committee is poised to discuss and finalise the scope of services of the consultancy study on urban renewal that the Macau SAR Government will commission during its next meeting.
Speaking to Macau News Agency (MNA) on the sidelines of the Urban Renewal Committee’s first plenary meeting of the year on Tuesday, Paul Tse See Fan, co-ordinator of the committee’s first taskforce, said the group will also discuss the possibility of holding a public consultation “following or during the time of the consultancy study,” during its next session scheduled to be held within “two to three weeks.”
“In the following months, the government will be commissioning a consulting study on urban renewal in general, and today we discussed the scope of work which this consultant will be responsible for,” Mr. Tse stated.
He explained that the study will be commissioned via public tender and added that the committee’s chairman and Secretary for Land and Public Works, Raimundo Arrais do Rosário, had said that “quite a number of international companies will be invited to the tender.”
In regards to the Committee’s agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Tse noted that many of the issues which have been previously discussed “were also brought up again and reconfirmed” during the meeting.
In particular, they tackled the matter of the percentage of residential unit owners who have to agree in order to approve the development of buildings, a figure currently set at nearly 100 per cent.
“What this commission has discussed and has reached consensus on is that that percentage should be brought down to a more reasonable level, and depending on the age of the building it can be brought down to 90 per cent or even 85 per cent. The older the building, the lower the percentage,” he argued.
Other matters brought to the table by committee members today included the stamp duty tax benefits, “which will be accruing to buildings under re-development,” and temporary housing for residents “whose buildings are being demolished to make way for new buildings,” Mr. Tse told MNA.
According to him, the members also discussed the setting up of a wholly-owned government company for urban renewal matters.
“This has already been discussed by the government and to a very large extent it has consensus both within the government, within this commission and the community,” he said.
