Despite protests outside, the Ministry of the Interior’s Regional Planning Committee yesterday gave initial approval to the development project for the Central Taiwan Science Park’s Changhua County branch in Erlin Township (二林).
The Construction and Planning Agency (CPA) said in a press release after the five-hour meeting that the land development permit would be issued once the National Science Council (NSC) sends in a revised development plan. The council has three months to do so.
About 80 farmers, fishermen and environmentalists who live near the site designated for development threw eggs while demonstrating outside the NSC in the morning before moving their protest to the CPA.
“Erlin is designated as an underground water reservoir protection area, so high water-consuming industries should not be located there. Erlin has also been declared an agricultural zone,” Changhua County Environmental Protection Union executive director Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said. “I urge the government to find another site to avoid any unnecessary impact on the local environment.”
Farmers and fishermen also expressed their worries that wastewater from the science park would cause pollution and damage the local agricultural and fishing industries.
The CPA said it would compensate 28 households whose properties were to be compulsorily purchased by the government to make way for the science park, as well as resettle the residents, help them find jobs and take care of agricultural issues.
The CPA said it planned to build an apartment complex on the new science park campus and those whose lands had been bought by the government could live in an apartment if they wished.
The NSC took a petition letter from the protesters and promised to listen to their wishes.
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