The Chief Executive in Council has approved the draft Aberdeen & Ap Lei Chau Outline Zoning Plan which aims to conserve the natural environment and features of special scientific interest.

About 31% of the total area is zoned "Green Belt" (210.7 hectares), "Coastal Protection Area" (28.4 hectares) and "Site of Specific Scientific Interest" (two hectares). An area of 101.7 hectares is zoned "Country Park" covering the southern part of the Aberdeen Country Park.

The planning scheme area, covering about 784 hectares, is located at the southern part of Hong Kong Island. It is characterised by a mixture of land uses with Tin Wan and Aberdeen areas mainly for commercial/residential uses, the Wong Chuk Hang area for business uses, and Ap Lei Chau and the area along Nam Long Shan Road mainly for residential uses and other specified uses such as Ocean Park.

The Wong Chuk Hang area has been undergoing gradual transformation since its rezoning from "Industrial" to "Other Specified Uses" annotated "Business" in 2001 towards less polluted and cleaner business uses.

Height controls

A set of building height controls has been incorporated into the plan to ensure the transformation would not have a negative impact on the area's visual quality. 

The principal objective is to reinforce the intrinsic character and natural attributes of Wong Chuk Hang, Aberdeen and Ap Lei Chau as a whole, while enabling flexibility in building design to achieve the permissible non-domestic plot ratio under the Building (Planning) Regulations.

A total of 103.4 hectares of land is zoned "Other Specified Uses" to reserve sites for special uses. These include the Wong Chuk Hang business area, Ocean Park, the Chinese Permanent Cemetery, a number of private sports and recreation clubs, sites reserved for cargo-handling areas, the Hongkong Electric Company's Ap Lei Chau headquarters complex, a transit depot for liquefied petroleum gas and oil products, and petrol filling stations.

Most of the residential developments in the area are zoned "Residential (Group A)" (58.6 hectares) for public and private residential developments.

About 10.3 hectares of land is zoned "Industrial" covering industrial land at Tin Wan, the south-western part of Ap Lei Chau, the east of Ap Lei Chau Praya Road and west of Shum Wan Road.