“We hope to adopt a soft approach in which contractors are encouraged to build lower buildings inside the district, while the government will offer them incentives for projects outside the district,” he said.
The proposal was intended to apply only to projects that had not yet obtained a construction license, not those that were already under way, Wang said.
“We never demanded the demolition of the I Pin Building,” he said.
The I Pin Building was finalized during Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) presidency when Ma was Taipei mayor.
The building is not inside the Boai Special District.
The city has the final say on restricting the height of new buildings around the Presidential Office and presidential residence, Wang said, and the Presidential Office would respect the city’s decision.
He said he believed the city government would strike a balance between the rights of contractors and presidential security.
Wang’s remarks, however, ran counter to the minutes he provided to the media. In the appendix, the National Security Council proposed putting the area around the Presidential Office and residence into the “core zone of the capital,” where the height of buildings would be regulated and no new buildings could be built.
A senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity criticized the city government for “lacking sensitivity” because expansion of the district was a critical issue.
“It was a complete blunder from the very beginning,” he said. “It was the city government’s call to announce expansion of the [Boai] district and it was their decision to withdraw it. It has nothing to do with us.”
The official said when Ma was mayor, he invited officials from the Presidential Office and NSB to discuss the I Pin Building project, but neither opposed the plan.
Ting and Deputy Mayor Lee Yong-ping (李永萍) visited Presidential Office Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) yesterday afternoon, he said, before Hau held his press conference.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
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