Macau (MNA) – The New Macau Association (NMA) urged the Macau SAR Government this Thursday to control the height of on-going and future developments in the areas surrounding the Guia Lighthouse, such as the New Area Zone B.
NMA also considered that the height and ‘intense light’ emitted by the large-scale construction projects in Wanchai and Hengqin were impacting the city’s UNESCO-protected Historic Centre, and requested that a ‘regional co-ordination mechanism’ be established with Zhuhai authorities for landscape protection.
The association announced in a press conference held today some of their concerns over the on-going public consultation for the Protection Management Plan (PMP) of the Historic Centre of Macau.
Last July, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) requested the MSAR Government to submit to the entity the PMP by December 1, 2018, with a 60-day public consultation on the plan having been initiated on January 20 until March 20.
“We can’t find very clear details information or standardss on the consultation. The government must make height restriction standards more clear for the visual corridors, including the corridor angle and width,” legislator and NMA Vice-President, Sulu Sou Ka Hou said today.
Today, NMA also revealed that it has submitted a report to the Director of the WHC on the state of the city’s World Heritage sites, singling out December 2016 as its starting point, after having submitted a similar report in 2015.
The group suggested that the Penha Hill and New Reclamation Zone B, including the Governador Nobre de Carvalho bridge, be considered visual corridors subjected to special protection since no height restriction have yet been defined to the reclaimed land.
‘A number of idle lands situated in Nam Vam Lake Zones C and D […] have not yet been recuperated, along with several high-rise development projects ready to commence,’ the group announced.
The group also considered that the areas mentioned could ‘become the next NAPE,’ an area they consider has been ‘drowned’ by high rise buildings after height restrictions were removed by the government in 2006, blocking the view to the Guia Lighthouse.
The association also stated the government was playing ‘delaying tactics’ in regard to high-rise developments at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf and at Calçada do Gaio while reviewing the height restrictions for buildings near the Lighthouse.
The mentioned projects relate to a proposed 126-metre high residential building located at the Calçada do Gaio, and the Legendale Hotel, a project by Macau Legend, which the local gaming group initially intended to raise to 90 metres, but which it recently accepted to cap at 60 metres.
[Edited by Sheyla Zandonai]
