As many as 90 urban renewal projects proposed across the country are to be halted, with local governments suspending new project proposals until the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例) is amended, after clauses in the law that were declared unconstitutional yesterday became invalid.
Following the controversial Wenlin Yuan (文林苑) project in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林), the Council of Grand Justices ruled on April 26 last year that certain clauses in the act were unconstitutional, including a clause that grants government agencies the power to approve applications for urban renewal without requesting a proper review process and another that requires consent from 10 percent of the property owners of the proposed renewal site.
The council said that as the right to properties is protected by the Constitution, taking away people’s land requires proper procedure.
The council also declared that the clauses became invalid after their one-year buffer period, which was yesterday, while the proposed amendments to the law have not yet been adopted.
The Ministry of the Interior announced in a statement that the newly submitted urban renewal applications would be halted until amendments to the law are passed, while those already in the system must go through public hearings before being approved.
“As many as 90 recently submitted applications for urban renewal will be affected by the suspension of review until the Urban Renewal Act is amended, and additional public hearings will be needed for the 497 projects that are already in process,” the statement said.
The disputed Wenlin Yuan urban renewal project refers to a plan initiated by Le Young Construction Co to flatten decades-old apartment buildings and townhouses.
A family named Wang (王) who owned two townhouses on the site said they were not properly consulted and never gave consent to the project, but their property was forcibly demolished by the Taipei City Government because the majority of their neighbors agreed to it.
However, the forced demolition triggered protests and a movement to amend the law on urban renewal that are still ongoing today.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS