The environmental impact assessment review process for the Taipei Dome construction project was delayed until next month following a four-hour meeting, as several dozen environmental activists and local residents voiced concerns about the proposed complex’s impact on local traffic and the overall environment.
Taipei City’s Environmental Impact Assessment Review Committee has turned down the environmental impact assessment report three times since 2007. The fourth committee meeting held yesterday at the Taipei City Hall failed to finish the review process of the revised project plan after more than half of the 20 committee members left the meeting that was marked by disapproval from environmental activists and local residents.
“The size of the Taipei Dome in the revised plan only shrank 3 percent when compared with the original plan, which makes little difference to the negative impact on traffic and the environment. We want the city government to revoke the contract and stop the development project,” said Yu Yi (游藝), head of a civic group that is calling for the preservation of the factory site, during the committee meeting.
Photo: Lin Hsiang-mei, Taipei Times
Pan Pei-chun (潘佩君), the parent of a student at Taipei Municipal Guangfu Elementary School, which is next to the proposed site on the corner of Zhongxiao E Road and Guangfu S Road, said many parents at the school were concerned about the noise and pollution that would be caused by the construction.
Trucks going in and out of the construction site could also pose a danger to children, she added.
Farglory chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄), who attended the committee meeting, rejected the protesters’ claim that the building would have a negative impact on the environment and insisted that its revised Taipei Dome project, which lowered the building coverage ratio from 60 percent to 55 percent and offered more pedestrian space, would be an eco-friendly complex that would strike a balance between urban development and environmental protection.
“Building domes in downtown areas is a global trend and stopping the Taipei Dome development project should not be an option. The stalling of the project has become a joke and it’d be unbelievable if the project was denied,” he said while leaving the meeting.
Taipei City’s Department of Environmental Protection commissioner Wu Sheng-chong (吳聖忠) said the department would gather committee members together some time next month to complete the review process.
The proposed complex would include a 40,000-seat indoor stadium with surrounding shopping and residential districts. Construction is scheduled to begin in July if it passes the environmental impact assessment.
The group signed the contract with the city government in 2006 and plans to invest more than NT$23 billion (US$700 million) in the complex. Since then, ongoing protests from environmentalists and local residents have stalled the review process.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
RSS