The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation’s project in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) has once again ignited controversy. Most people who like to be part of what is happening remain stuck between calls for development and environmental protection and have failed completely to grasp the trick to changing urban planning — changes to protected areas.
After Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) moved into City Hall, he put together a new urban planning commission that is to hold its first meeting next week. During this meeting, the commission should put a decisive end to the Tzu Chi park project in Neihu and the proposed changes to the Wego Elementary School protected area in Beitou District (北投) and submit the two projects to a comprehensive review.
If they do not, that will be evidence that Ko is all bark and no bite and that his environmental protection credentials fall far behind his predecessor, former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌). From a legal perspective, the city government holds the right to propose changes to urban planning and Ko has shown the development faction all necessary courtesy by not directly ordering an end to these two projects.
Urban planning in Taiwan is a matter of rigid land use management with regulations on how each lot can be used and how heavily it can be developed. If a piece of land can be redesignated from low development to heavy development, the market value could well increase a hundredfold or even a thousandfold — the modern version of alchemy. Any regular city resident who wants to bring about such a repurposing faces insurmountable obstacles, but anyone — individual or organization — with money and power has a direct line to the powers that be and can buy cheap protected land or farmland to then have it reclassified as land for residential or commercial use or any other kind of special use, such as a so-called “cultural and sports park” in the shape of a big dome.
While the land set off for the Tzu Chi park project is called a “protected area,” it is not the same kind of protected area that is strictly regulated under the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) and other special laws. The proposed park’s area is loosely regulated, and it can be used for many different things, such as farming or husbandry, residential purposes or as a parking lot.
Existing social welfare organizations and facilities such as the Tzu Chi Foundation are not forbidden and unsightly sheds of corrugated steel sheeting can be rebuilt into proper houses. The only restriction is that the land area cannot exceed 5,000m2 and any buildings may not be taller than three floors. If the changes required in connection to the Tzu Chi project are approved, the total floor space will be 44,000m2, which is many times more than what regulations allow.
Data organized by Yang Chung-hsin (楊重信), dean of Chinese Culture University’s College of Environmental Design, who studies urban planning, show that the total area of land for which Tzu Chi has applied for repurposing covers dozens of hectares. The developers at Tzu Chi have clearly grasped the trick to urban planning.
The cleverest trick of all is to avoid the common comprehensive review of the changes required and instead look for a change to a tailor made “individual project.” While Tzu Chi may be all about charity and social welfare, if changes can be directly approved based on Article 27 of the Urban Planning Act (都市計畫法), which says that the authorities “shall take immediate action according to the circumstances and make changes to urban plans that have been announced and implemented ... when such changes are deemed necessary to facilitate national defense or economic development,” then legitimate companies will follow suit, and as the door to protected areas will be opened wide there will be nothing to hold them back.
Following demands from society, Taipei’s urban planning commission finally decided in April 2013 that the Tzu Chi project should be included in an overall review of Neihu, but then-Taipei deputy mayor Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚), unable to block the pressure for development, left a back door open by saying: “If the project does not violate the principles of the comprehensive review,” it would be acceptable to go ahead with individual project changes.
At a meeting in October last year, the position of Chen Wu-cheng (陳武正), convener of the comprehensive review special task force, drew strong protests, and Sheng Yi-che (冼義哲) and others who protested to safeguard the protected areas were later brought to court.
Another source of conflict has been the changes to Wego Elementary School land designation and other protected areas in Beitou. At the previous meeting of the urban planning committee before Hau stepped down, the committee passed a set of principles for handling changes to protected areas throughout the city. The first principle is that all changes should be submitted to a comprehensive review. In other words, the Tzu Chi and Wego projects should no longer be handled as individual projects.
If the Tzu Chi project had been entered into the correct comprehensive review path from the beginning, the development project might have been passed a long time ago. As things stand, Tzu Chi would do better to adhere to the development restrictions and instead build a social welfare facility and restore 60 percent of the land as required by the law.
If it does, it could turn the current problems into an opportunity and rebuild its image as a disaster prevention and pro-environmental protection organization.
Pan Han-shen is a former spokesperson for the Green Party Taiwan and a member of the Principles for Handling Changes to Protected Areas Throughout the City special task force.
Translated by Perry Svensson
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday last week held a debate over the constitutionality of the death penalty. The issue of the retention or abolition of the death penalty often involves the conceptual aspects of social values and even religious philosophies. As it is written in The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the government’s policy is often a choice between the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods, and it is impossible to be perfect. Today’s controversy over the retention or abolition of the death penalty can be viewed in the same way. UNACCEPTABLE Viewing the
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused