The environmental impact assessment process for the Taipei Dome construction project was delayed again yesterday after the city’s Environmental Impact Assessment Review Committee decided to postpone the vote because of insufficient information from the contractor.
The committee has postponed the final voting on the assessment four times since 2007. During the fifth meeting yesterday at Taipei City Hall, many committee members voiced concern about the necessity of building a 40,000-seat stadium in downtown Taipei and its possible impact on local traffic.
“We already have Taipei Arena in downtown and rather than sports events, it is mostly used as a venue for concerts. Given that the market size of sports in Taiwan is just not large enough, do we need a bigger sports facility in the city?” committee member Huang Jun-hung (黃俊鴻), a civil engineering professor at National Central University, said during the meeting.
Committee member Kuo Su-chiu (郭素秋) challenged what she called a disproportion between sports and business facilities.
In addition to the indoor stadium, the complex would also include a surrounding shopping and residential area, a movie theater and a hotel. The floor area of the shopping area would account for 70 percent of the complex.
Amid concerns about the dome from committee members, the committee chair, Taipei City’s Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Wu Sheng-chung (吳聖忠), declined to put the project to vote and said the department would ask the contractor, Farglory Group, to offer more information on the project before gathering the committee again to complete the review process.
The decision angered environmental activists who had been waiting outside for the result.
Taiwan Green Party spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) accused the city government of favoring the contractor and refusing to put an end to a policy mistake.
He said the size of the Taipei Dome in the revised plan only shrank by 3 percent compared with the original plan and that the city should not consider a revised plan that made little difference to the negative impacts.
Janus Lee (李柏熹), manager of Farglory’s operation administration department, said the company was disappointed at the long-delayed process, but will provide more information in accordance with the committee’s request.
“We have made all the revisions upon request and done a lot of explaining over the years. I don’t think there’s much we can revise in the project,” he said.
The group signed the contract with the city in 2006 and plans to invest more than NT$23 billion (US$700 million) in the complex. Since then, ongoing protests from environmentalists and local residents have stalled the review process.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS