Controversy over the future of Taipei’s Novel Hall (新舞台) continued yesterday as the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs announced plans to reaffirm its designation as “cultural landscape.”
Located in Taipei’s Xinyi (信義) business district, Novel Hall was formerly a major performance venue, before being shuttered as part of CTBC Holding Co’s (中國信託金融控股) efforts to sell the high-rise complex to which it is attached. CTBC previously funded the hall’s construction and operations.
CTBC Holding’s decision to close the site sparked an outcry from the artistic community, leading the city government to designate the site as “cultural landscape,” attaching a “subsidiary condition” requiring it to be used for artistic and cultural events.
The city government’s Administrative Appeals Commission on Tuesday overruled the “subsidiary condition,” saying that the condition illegally restricted site usage. The commission also required the city to reconsider the site’s designation as “cultural landscape.”
CTBC Holding said the condition scared away potential buyers because of uncertainty over whether the hall could be demolished to make way for new construction.
“The status of the site as ‘cultural landscape’ has not been invalidated,” Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Ni Chung-hwa (倪重華) said, adding that the department would ask the city’s Cultural Heritage Evaluation Committee to review the performance hall’s designation at the end of the month.
He added that in the future the city government would use rezoning regulations to negotiate with CTBC Holding to preserve the site.
Department official Lin Chang-chieh (林長杰) said that apart from any “subsidiary conditions,” designation as “cultural landscape” in itself does not impose any limits on site changes.
Taipei Urban Planning Commission Executive Secretary and spokeswoman Liu Hsiu-ling (劉秀玲) said that without the legal foundation of the “subsidiary condition,” which was overturned, the city government would not be able to require Novel Hall’s preservation as part of the site’s rezoning, and would have to instead rely on rewards, such as “volume incentives.”
The commission in March had originally ratified plans requiring Novel Hall to be reconstructed within any new building constructed on the site.
Taipei Department of Economic Development Commissioner Lin Chong-chieh (林崇傑), who handled the building’s case when it was originally zoned, has said that CTBC was originally given “volume incentives” for constructing Novel Hall, with the city allowing the firm to add floors to its attached high-rise.
In related news, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday brushed aside comments by former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who called him a “chicken” (俗仔) for what Hau said was Ko’s unwillingness to take responsibility for the actions of the city government’s Clean Government Committee.
The committee released a report last week alleging that Hau and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had illegally profited corporations during their respective terms as Taipei mayor.
Ko yesterday said Hau’s comments were not worth dwelling on, adding that some people make malicious remarks when they are exasperated.
He added that although Hau had left him a lot of “messes,” he was focused on “cleaning up the aftermath,” rather than assigning blame.
Separately yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) panned Hau over his criticism of Ko.
Lin said on Facebook that Hau should just “shut up,” because “no one tries to profiteer for corporations like you do.”
In the name of promoting the “cultural creative industry,” the Hau administration allowed shopping malls and a luxury hotel instead, Lin said.
She then cited examples of other build-operate-transfer projects, which she said all provide much higher revenue royalties for the government.
“The city government could have made a lot of profit out of the shopping malls and the hotel, but the contract between the city government and the operator has made the city government a beggar for small revenue royalties,” Lin said. “How do you [Hau] think you can still be talking and making accusations?”
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
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