Urban land consolidation regulations should be revised to require central government review of consolidation sponsored by local governments, while banning privately sponsored consolidation, campaigners said yesterday.
More than 20 self-help association members opposed to proposed land consolidation projects in Taichung, Taoyuan and New Taipei City gathered outside the Taipei NGO House prior to a meeting sponsored by the Ministry of the Interior, criticizing regulations that allow the forceful expropriation of land without the need to demonstrate any public benefits.
Rules allow for groups as small as seven landlords to apply for land consolidation for a particular area, as long as they represent and own at least half of the land, campaigners said.
While the process is intended to consolidate piecemeal holdings, enabling construction and road access for all plots, campaigners said that low approval thresholds and a lack of rigorous review encourage abuses.
“The rules are very relaxed and include a public interest review criteria,” Taiwan Anti-Forced Eviction Alliance executive committee member Tien Chi-feng said.
He said that in the case of consolidation sponsored by local governments, the local governments serve as “referees at their own games,” as the plans are only subject to “approval for reference” by the ministry, which simply verifies that all paperwork is in order, rather than engaging in a substantial review.
Lawyer Ko Shao-chen (柯劭臻), who represents self-help associations in several cases in Taichung, said that privately sponsored land consolidation plans are not reviewed seriously by local governments, enabling private steering committees to allocate the best land to themselves in some cases.
“Because there is no public interest involved in privately sponsored land consolidation, they should not have the right to force landowners to participate,” Chi said, calling for the process to be replaced by a “joint development” scheme, requiring unanimous agreement from all affected landowners.
“Urban land consolidation only takes into account the rights of land owners — not the rights of tenants and other people,” said Lin Tzu-chin (林子勤) a member of the self-help association for a land consolidation project in Taoyuan’s Guishan District (龜山), adding that members of his association were largely tenants on government-owned land who had received eviction orders after they were included in a private land consolidation act without their knowledge.
According to the rules, nearby government-owned land can automatically be included in land consolidation projects, he said.
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