Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors yesterday called for the immediate demolition of the Taipei Dome.
City Councilor Wang Chih-ping (汪志冰) said that allowing contractor Farglory Group (遠雄集團) more time to complete the structure after the passage of the June 15 contract deadline would mean “throwing the game” in favor of the company.
In response to KMT councilors’ demands for details about the city’s endgame on the Dome, Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) said that the city has four options: giving Farglory additional time, ordering lenders to take over the structure, temporarily suspending parts of the firm’s contract or ending the contract.
When asked about the legal grounds to end the contract, Taipei Department of Legal Affairs Commissioner Yang Fang-ling (楊芳玲) cited articles in the contract allowing it to be dissolved in the event of serious occurrences affecting its implementation.
The Taipei City Government has been locked in a dispute with Farglory over the Dome’s contract terms since January, with a city commission in April calling for either the Dome itself or a neighboring shopping mall to be demolished due to safety concerns in case of an emergency evacuation of the site.
Ko has said that the city government would hold public hearings on the site’s future before making a final decision.
Citing poll results in favor of demolition, as well as safety concerns over the neighboring Songshan Tobacco Factory historical site and the Bannan (板南) MRT line, Wang said the city should cancel Farglory’s contract and demolish the structure.
However, Ko said the future of the Dome site was a “difficult topic” for which there was no clear “right answer,” but for which the city needed to quickly “take a stance.”
He also said it would be inappropriate to publically discuss the city’s negotiating strategy.
Wang also called on the city government to take a clear stance on whether there had been any wrongdoing on the part of Ko’s predecessor, Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), in connection with the Dome project.
Ko said the final report on the Dome project by the city’s Clean Government Commission would be issued on Wednesday next week.
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