The initiation of the second phase of the new Tamhai New Town (淡海新市鎮) development project in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Tamsui District (淡水) was blocked by the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) general assembly yesterday, until it passes a second, stricter review.
The project to create a town using 1,756 hectares of land north of central Tamsui to relocate 300,000 people from the overcrowded Taipei metropolitan area was first proposed by the Construction and Planning Agency in 1992.
The first phase of the project has been completed. The second and third stage plans were drawn up in 1995, but never implemented after the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) requested that both be submitted to two EIAs.
After many years of delays, the agency this year submitted another development project covering more than 1,100 hectares to an EIA under a new name, but which included zones that were designated for development under the original plan’s second phase.
Before the EIA general assembly meeting was held yesterday, dozens of people supporting and opposing the project gathered at the EPA to express their views.
Carrying soil, rice stems and seaweed from the area, representatives of a Tamsui self-help association said the project would destroy not only the area’s environment and ecology, but also its high-quality agricultural land and fishing sites. Cultural sites such as 100-year-old houses, aqueducts and ponds would also be destroyed, they added.
They said the first phase of the project was finished more than 20 years ago, but though it was designed to house 130,000 people, only 13,000 have moved — one-tenth of what was planned — so if the new project proposal is realized, it will likely only create another “ghost town.”
Members of the association are also concerned that more than 15,000 households would be forced to relocate if the project is approved.
“We don’t want to become the second Dapu Borough (大埔) of Taiwan,” association member Tsai Yin (蔡瀛) said.
In an effort to gain approval from the general assembly, the Construction and Planning Agency has amended the proposal to reduce the size of the development to 655 hectares, so it only includes the first zone of the original second phase area.
Supporters of the project, including city councilors and borough chiefs, said that the project could help develop the area economically and many residents have already waited more than 20 years for the development to be completed.
Taking into consideration the possible impacts that the project would have, the meeting’s committee members concluded that the proposal needs to undergo a second-phase EIA process to be reviewed more thoroughly.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS