Work on turning the Taipei Summer Universiade’s Athletes’ Village into a social housing complex is in progress, and people can start applying to rent the units for housing or business in the second half of next year, the Construction and Planning Agency said yesterday.
The agency issued an official statement after Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) complained that his administration has to deal with the problem of what to do with the Athletes’ Village until it is turned over to the agency in one-and-a-half years to be used for social housing.
Ko said the buildings in the village would be dark and empty, and cannot be used for other events during the intervening period.
“It is clearly not my responsibility. The use of the Athletes’ Village after the Universiade had already been planned during the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). It is impossible for the current administration to take the blame for not putting these buildings to better use during the transition. As such, these buildings will become a liability that no one wants to take,” Ko told reporters.
Construction and Planning Agency planning division chief Su Chun-jung (蘇俊榮) said that the mayor was entitled to his opinion, but the agency has already started on plans to turn the buildings into social housing units.
The village has 3,490 units: 82 ground-floor units that would be rented out to retailers and 3,408 units that can be leased for housing, Su said.
They should be ready after a series of renovations and paperwork are completed, Su said.
“The apartment complex will have several social welfare facilities, including a kindergarten, long-term care facilities and space for young entrepreneurs to set up new businesses. As the buildings were used to accommodate Universiade athletes, there are some temporary facilities that have to be torn down because they were not in the original construction plan,” Su said.
The Taipei Public Works Department, which was entrusted by the agency to build the Athletes’ Village, must have these additions to the apartment complex inspected and secure the permits to use them, Su said, adding that the city cannot begin transferring ownership of the property without completing these procedures.
The Taipei City Government is scheduled to turn the property over to the agency by February 2019, Su said.
Prior to the ownership transfer, the agency will have to draw up rules and procedures governing applications to lease the social housing units, including the types of people who would qualify.
The application procedures are to be made available to the public in the second half of next year, and people can start applying once these rules are published, he said.
The agency will also have to meet with local government officials, as they will be entrusted with the task of reviewing the qualifications of the applicants, he said.
The property, which is close to the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Access MRT System’s Linkou Station (林口站), will only be leased to eligible applicants and will not be for sale, Su said.
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