The Kaohsiung High Administrative Court on Thursday ordered the Taitung County Government to revoke its approval of Miramar Resort Hotel Co’s application to resume construction of a hotel at Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣).
The court said that the county government based its approval on an environmental impact assessment (EIA) review made in 2012, which it said was a different case from the original hotel project and should not have been used as the basis for the county’s judgement.
The construction project dates back to 2004, when the county government signed a build-operate-transfer contract with the developer to construct a six-hectare hotel complex on the beach.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The county government approved the project’s EIA review in 2008, but it was overruled by the Kaohsiung High Administrative Court in 2009. The ruling was upheld by the Supreme Administrative Court in January 2012, after which construction of the hotel was halted.
The county started a second EIA review in December 2012 after the company incorporated the Golden Coast Development Plan in its original construction project and submitted the new development plan for review, which was passed conditionally.
The county government gave the green light for the company to resume construction after the 2012 EIA review.
Local residents filed two lawsuits with the Kaohsiung Administrative Court in 2013: one alleging that the 2012 EIA review was illegal and the other demanding that the approval to resume construction of the hotel be revoked.
Last year, the administrative court ordered that the second EIA approval be revoked, saying that out of the eight EIA committee members who were present at the meeting during which the development plan was passed, only five were qualified to review the case, which is not enough to form a quorum.
The court ruled that the passing of the development plan was in violation of the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) and should therefore be invalidated.
The administrative court on Thursday said that the county’s approval of the company’s application to resume construction should be revoked as the court had overruled the second EIA approval. It added that the county should not have accepted the company’s resubmission of the construction project as another development plan at all.
Taitung County Deputy Commissioner Chen Chin-hu (陳金虎) said that the county would appeal the ruling, adding that the judges should see for themselves whether the local environment has been damaged by the hotel construction.
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
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
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
Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office. Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row. Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother. Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said
RSS