The Council of Grand Justices’ ruling that a land expropriation and development project for a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) depot in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) is unconstitutional should serve as a warning to the government, which has been increasingly favoring such “joint development” projects.
Since 1991, the Taipei City Government has forcibly expropriated 239 plots of land in the district, which was then known as Sindian City, Taipei County, to make way for the maintenance depot. However, 40 of the plots — covering 6.27 hectares — were not used for depot construction; rather, the city government under then-Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2001 worked with Radium Life Tech Co to build high-rise apartment buildings, prompting previous landowners to file lawsuits against the city government, demanding compensation totaling more than NT$20 billion (US$600.7 million).
The expropriation was declared unconstitutional on Friday, with the council finding it in violation of the landowners’ right to property because the expropriated land was not in fact used for constructing MRT facilities.
Although this is the first case in which a land expropriation project has been declared unconstitutional, it is not the first time the government initiated a public construction “package” that includes projects that would benefit businesses unrelated to the original public construction project.
One such example is the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, which is meant to upgrade the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and develop surrounding areas into a free economic pilot zone, with land reserved for manufacturing and industry.
It is certainly one of the biggest development projects in the nation, with as much as 6,150 hectares of private land in Dayuan (大園), Lujhu (蘆竹) and Jhongli (中壢) districts in Taoyuan set to be expropriated, affecting tens of thousands of residents.
The project may sound reasonable, but a closer look reveals that it includes a “coastal recreational zone,” complete with luxury hotels, resorts and shopping centers. The project is supposed to upgrade the airport and develop the industries in the surrounding area — why should residents sacrifice their properties for coastal resorts and shopping centers?
In another, less-noticed project in Tucheng District (土城), New Taipei City, the government plans to relocate the Taipei Detention Center, the New Taipei City District Courthouse and the New Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office to a farming community that is only about 2km from where the judicial institutions are now.
The relocation plan has raised doubts among locals, who do not think the 2km move would make much of a difference. What is more appalling is that while the facilities would take up about 25 hectares, an area of more than 160 hectares is to be expropriated, where the New Taipei City Government plans to also build high-rise apartments, commercial buildings and shopping malls.
The reason locals demanded the relocation in the first place is that they do not want to live next to a prison, so it does not make much sense to move it only 2km. What is even more odd is the government’s plan to have construction firms build new apartment complexes around a new prison.
If private companies are interested in building facilities not related to a public construction project itself — like in the Aerotropolis project — they should do it the “regular” way: Purchase the land by negotiating with landowners, instead of acquiring it through government expropriation.
It is a good thing that the Council of Grand Justices has caught something fishy in the Sindian construction package. Hopefully the judiciary’s action does not stop here.
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