Opponents of the phase-II development of Tamhai New Town (淡海新市鎮) yesterday asked the central government to evaluate the deal’s social and economic impact on the community and to hold a public hearing before setting the boundaries for the land seizure.
As the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was scheduled to hold its fourth meeting on setting the boundaries of the development yesterday, dozens of residents of New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), environmental activists and Tamkang University students camped outside EPA headquarters beginning on Wednesday night, to appeal to the public on the issue.
They protested before the meeting started yesterday morning and demanded that members of the review board go over the details of the development deal line-by-line.
Photo: CNA
Lu Cheng-chung (盧正忠), who is with a group opposing the town’s further development, said they thought the EPA was helping the Ministry of Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency rush through the boundary-setting meetings to get them done in one day.
Lu said the proposed phase-II development would force more than 1,600 households to relocate. He added that the new development is unnecessary because there are still many unsold houses and underdeveloped properties within the boundaries of the phase-I development.
“The Construction and Planning Agency said that the land expropriated for the phase-II development would be used to build an eco-friendly city and a ‘paradise for elderly citizens,’ but we feel that our environment is already rich in terms of biodiversity,” Lu said. “It is really gratuitous to destroy the biodiversity and build an artificial eco-friendly city. The elderly people in the community are, on the other hand, happy and self-sufficient. They do not need to be relocated so that a ‘paradise’ can be built for them.”
Lu said the government has planned to seize about 1,200 hectares of land for the phase-II development, with most of the targeted area being farmland.
Ling Hong Ching-tze (林洪清子), who is in her 80s, said this was not the first time that the government has seized her property. She said that she was once asked to give up 661 hectares for a section of highway to be built, and was compensated with just NT$1.7 million (US$56,000 at current exchange rates).
She added that she has been approached again by developers because of the project.
She said she was told that she would have to swap a larger area of land for a smaller one and buy back the land that she owned.
“I am pretty content with the land I have now, which has natural water coming from Datunshan (大屯山),” she said. “How can I find the money to buy back the land? And I should not have to buy back land that is mine.”
Residents supporting the development responded with their own data, saying that 542 households would need to relocate.
Tamsui District Administrator Tsai Yeh-wei (蔡葉偉) said that about 157 hectares of land to be expropriated are fallow farmland, with no trees, endangered species or historical sites to be protected.
One woman held a poster bearing the signatures of other residents who support the proposed development. She said development is good for the community, since more than 70 percent of its young people have left town to seek jobs elsewhere.
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