The board, which reviews land use applications, adjourned its closed-door deliberations for the project’s statutory zoning plan after wrapping up a four-day public hearing on Thursday.

If it approves the zoning plan, the proposal will then be sent to the city leader and his top government advisers on the Executive Council for approval.

Under the government’s current plan, half of the proposed site will be earmarked for innovation and technology purposes, while the rest will become a city centre with 54,000 flats, with 70 per cent designated for public housing.

Another 6,400 homes will also be built to accommodate incoming talent. The entire technopole is expected to house up to 159,000 people.

The association said on Thursday that the government should clearly define the types of housing set to be offered to talent.

“As we develop land, the public housing supply in the coming decade will exceed the demand by quite a big percentage. We have the room to modify the planning for the new development area,” he said.

Authorities have already identified enough land to build 410,000 public flats, in a bid to fulfil demand for an estimated 308,000 homes over the next 10 years.

The current waiting time for a public rental home is 5.7 years.

Yau said on Thursday that the government would also consider the project’s aim in setting the housing mix, noting the proposed technopole was positioned to attract technological and overseas talent and could require more private flats.

Other landowners speaking at the hearing urged authorities to boost the technopole’s private development potential.

Some called for homes to be incorporated into parts of the site originally set aside for an indoor sports centre and a fire services workshop at the edge of the project’s development boundary.

Melody Gain Limited and Clanville Developments Limited proposed building private housing above the sports centre, adding that the workshop could be relocated to “optimise land use” in the new development area.

Ng Kim-wai, a district planner with the Planning Department, said the workshop’s currently proposed location was appropriate since it minimised disturbances for residents.

Ng added that the facility was expected to generate nuisances and pollutants and be used to store dangerous goods.

Meanwhile, Venizelle Property Development suggested turning around 260,000 square feet of its land into a low-density residential estate with conservation elements to boost the housing supply rather than have the area used for the proposed Sam Po Shue wetland park next to the technopole.

The wetland park is part of government measures to help offset the environmental impact of the technopole.

But the company said its lands were unsuitable for use as part of the wetland park as private homes had been built around the area.

A Venizelle representative said illegal occupants had already damaged the site and many fish ponds in the area were dried up.

At the same hearing, the Hong Kong Institute of Architects and the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design proposed allowing exhibition, recreation and cultural facilities in existing villages in the project’s development area to promote rural and urban integration.