Lawmakers yesterday passed an amendment to the Spatial Planning Act (國土計畫法), extending the deadline for local governments to finalize their regional spatial plans and functional zoning plans by a year and two years respectively.
Under the amended act, the deadline for submitting regional spatial plans to the Ministry of the Interior for review has been pushed back by a year to May next year, while the deadline for delivering functional zoning plans, originally due in May 2022, has been postponed to May 2024.
A controversial proposal that would have given the Executive Yuan the authority to revise national or regional spatial plans for “major construction projects” was scrapped.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The proposal drew criticism from environmentalists, who said that it would encourage development at the expense of the environment and run counter to the spirit of the act.
The amendment was passed ahead of an April 30 deadline for local governments to submit their regional spatial plans, to “get local governments off the hook,” the Democratic Progressive Party caucus said on March 13.
At that time, eight of 18 local governments had not submitted their regional spatial plans, despite being required to do so, the party’s caucus said.
Since the regional spatial plans are fundamentally different from the regional plans of the past, it has taken local governments longer than expected to produce them and some that the ministry had received had proved problematic, Construction and Planning Agency Director-General Wu Hsin-hsou (吳欣修) said yesterday.
Local governments had submitted the plans too close to the original deadline, leaving the ministry with not enough time to review them, as the act mandates a three-month time frame for review, Wu said.
An extension of the deadline for the functional zoning plans was also required as they directly affect land rights, and would require a longer period for negotiations to be carried out between the government and those affected, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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