The Territorial Development Strategy Review in the 1990s first identified that there was potential for strategic growth in the North East New Territories (NENT). The Planning and Development Study on North East New Territories commissioned in 1998 had identified areas in Kwu Tung North (KTN), Fanling North (FLN) and Ping Che/Ta Kwu Ling (PC/TKL) to be suitable for New Development Areas (NDAs).

The Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy promulgated in 2007, recommended to proceed with the KTN, FLN and PC/TKL NDAs as well as the Hung Shui Kiu NDA to address the long-term housing demand and provide employment opportunities. Following the announcement in the 2007-08 Policy Address of the development of the NDAs as one of the ten major infrastructure projects for economic growth, the NENT NDAs Planning and Engineering Study was commissioned jointly by the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) and the Planning Department (PlanD) in June 2008, which formulated a planning and development framework for the implementation of the KTN, FLN and PC/TKL NDAs.

It was later decided to review and replan the PC/TKL NDA in the New Territories North (NTN) Study.

The KTN/FLN NDA cover a total area of about 612 ha. They can accommodate an additional population of about 226,700 and will create about 53,100 new jobs. They will provide a mix of housing types as well as basic infrastructure and community facilities. The NDAs are planned according to four guiding principles, namely, strategic roles of the NDAs, people-oriented communities, sustainable living environment and appropriate implementation mechanism.

With the land parcels originally zoned "Other Specified Uses" (“OU”) annotated "Business and Technology Park" in the NDAs shifted the land use function to the San Tin Technopole, the future land uses of these released land parcels were being studied.