Cecil Chao’s Coloane project could abut LRT line

Hong Kong businessman Cecil Chao Sze Tsung’s mixed residential and hotel project located in Seac Pai Van, Coloane could see a light rapid transit (LRT) extension nearby, as public works officials said on Wednesday that its initial examination of the project plan has already taken into account the reserving of space nearby to build an extension line.
Mr. Chao’s Hong Kong-listed Cheuk Nang (Holdings) Ltd. is planning to build a project comprising over 1,100 flats, a hotel and a shopping mall with car parking spaces on the 9,045 square metre site on the southern side of Estrada de Seac Pai Van, termed ‘Golden Cotai No.1’, according to the company’s filings and the government’s draft approval of the project. The ‘Golden Cotai No.1’ project is located opposite a golf course and is near the Seac Pai Van public housing complex.
Secretary for Public Works and Transport Raimundo Rosario and the Urban Planning Committee discussed the project on Wednesday in a meeting at which some of the committee members questioned the plot ratio allowed for the project and whether space had been reserved for the building of an LRT extension.
In response to the committee’s questions, the chief of the urban planning department of the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT), Lao Iong, said sufficient space has been reserved for expanding the road and constructing the LRT.
Golden Cotai
The government consulted the public in 2013 about its proposals to build an LRT route that connects Macau’s crossing point at Lotus Bridge, a new hospital to be built next to Seac Pai Van Reservoir and the Seac Pai Van public housing site. Speaking on Wednesday, however, Mr. Rosario noted that the government had yet to finalise a route plan for the LRT extension in the Seac Pai Van area.
According to the government’s draft approval of the Golden Cotai No.1 project, the maximum plot ratio allowed for the project is 14.2 times – with the residential part 9.8 times and the hotel 4.4 times.
The maximum height allowed for Mr. Chao’s project is 90 metres above ground.
The government suggests the company return 2,609 square metres of land to the government to serve the purpose of building a public road.
At the moment, the government has yet to issue an urban condition plan for Mr. Chao’s project. An urban condition plan is a document issued by the public works department that determines a project’s construction area, height cap and plot ratio once it has processed the opinions collected from the Urban Planning Committee and the public.
The draft approval of Mr. Chao’s project does not specify that it will contain any gaming elements.
But of the two written public opinions DSSOPT has received about the project, one of them opposes the construction of a hotel and a casino on the site, stating that the Seac Pai Van area should be a residential neighbourhood with more public facilities installed.