Residents of Taoyuan County’s Dayuan Township (大園) yesterday protested outside the Construction and Planning Agency (CPA) headquarters in Taipei against a development project that would force them to give up their land, condemning the project as illegitimate.
“I worked at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport until I was laid off a few years ago when the airport was privatized. I thought: ‘It’s time for me to live peacefully in retirement in the house I bought more than 30 years ago with my hard-earned money,” said Wang Chih-cheng (王治正), a resident whose property would be expropriated and flattened to make way for the commercial development project. “It looks like the government is now going to shatter my dream.”
Properties belonging to Wang and his neighbors would be expropriated by the county government for a “station zone development project” that aims to turn the area surrounding the new airport express train station for the airport — currently farms and small, scattered communities — into a commercial district and high-rise apartment complexes.
Residents and rights activists challenged the move, saying it does not meet the legal criteria, which states that an expropriation can only be implemented for a project if it is in the interests of the public and is necessary, and that expropriations should only be used as a last resort, with property owners being fully compensated.
“The ‘station zone development project’ is certainly unnecessary — the airport express line, the station, the roads and the parking lots have all been completed, it could be opened at any time, so why do they still need to take away our land?” Wang asked. “We have the right to stay in houses and on land that we’ve legally purchased.”
Cheng Sheng-tzu (陳勝次), another landowner whose property would also be expropriated, accused the county government and the developers of just trying to make a profit.
“The county government said that it would compensate us with NT$15,000 [US$497] per ping [3.3m2], while expropriated land nearby is being sold for NT$90,000 to NT$110,000 per ping,” Chen said.
Chen said it is the second time the county government has tried to seize his property in the past five years.
“My farmland and house were expropriated a few years ago for construction of the airport express train. I rebuilt my house about 100m away from where my old house used to stand,” he said. “I only moved into the new house three or four years ago, now they’re telling me I have to move again. This just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Kengkou Village (坑口) Warden Yang Chuan-chu (楊全居) said that as the planned green and orange lines of the Taoyuan MRT system are due to pass through the village, “I’m worried that villagers may face more land expropriations.”
Residents and rights activists later entered the agency’s building to attend a review meeting, where they had a heated debate with county officials and committee members.
Residents accused the committee members of being biased, as they kept reminding county officials what information to prepare for the next meeting.
No conclusion was reached at the meeting as county officials were unable to provide complete information proving that the project is absolutely necessary and beneficial to the public.
The case is to be discussed further at a follow-up meeting.
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