City under scrutiny for hillside school

Taipei City Councilwoman Li-Keng Kuei-fang (厲耿桂芳) yesterday alleged that the Taipei City Government violated laws by allowing the construction of a municipal school in a hillside area. City government officials dis-missed the allegations.

Inspecting the construction site of the city's second Municipal School for the Mentally Impaired (第二啟智學校) in Mucha, Wenshan District yesterday morning, Li-Keng of the KMT said that the city deliberately broke the law when it approved the six-story construction project.

"While the city government calls for the public to abide by the laws, it turns a blind eye to them," she said.

According to Li-Keng, the city violated two municipal bylaws regarding the development of the city's hillside areas.

The Taipei City hillside construction and urban development code stipulates that the difference between the amount of soil removed from the construction site and that brought in cannot exceed 10 percent, in a bid to make hillside construction blend more into the natural landscape.

However, much more soil was removed in the construction of the school than is legally allowed. The difference in the 4,000-ping (13,000m2) construction project is almost 90 percent, Li-Keng said.

The Taipei City hillside development code also specifies that the combined amount of soil dug out and filled in should not exceed 10,000m3 per hectare. However, the combined amount of the 1.3-hectare project is recorded at 40,000m3 per hectare.

The head project engineer, Lin Wen-cheng (林文正), said that there is nothing wrong with the design of the project.

"The design is the result of professional evaluations. We wouldn't have obtained the construction license if the design was wrong," Lin said.

Lin's view was echoed by Cheng Tung-ying (鄭東瀛), secretary-general of the city's Bureau of Education.

"How can the project be wrong or illegal when we received a construction license from the Office of Building Standards, part of the city's Bureau of Public Works, in 1998," he said.

Chen Mao-chun (陳茂春), secretary general of the building standards office, said that the office issues construction licenses only when the construction project is approved by the Bureau of Urban Development.

Hsu Chih-Chien (許志堅), director of the urban development bureau, said that the bureau did everything in accordance with the law.

"One of the bylaws cited by the councilwoman was enacted last year, while the project was approved two years earlier in 1998," Hsu said. "Although the other bylaw she cited was enacted in 1979, the two specific items mentioned were added to the bylaw when it was revised in 1999."

Kao Ming-chuan (高銘傳), Mucha borough warden, said that although local residents had originally voiced strong opposition to the construction of the school, they reached an agreement with the city government.

"The school has agreed to let us use some of the school facilities, including the swimming pool and library," he said.

He added that local residents had opposed the establishment of the school because some did not want mentally impaired children to study in their neighborhood.