The controversial villa rented by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in Taipei City's Shihlin District will not be demolished for the time being, municipal officials said yesterday. Although the residence has been built illegally, it will be spared because it was built before 1994.
The city, however, proposed that the Presidential Office should try to find a legally-constructed house for Lee if the office is to set a good example for the public.
"Although the house is safe from demolition for now, we thought it'd be appropriate for the Presidential Office to find a legally constructed house for the former president -- to solve the problem once and for all," said Liu Cheh-hsiung (劉哲雄), director of the building standards office under the city's Bureau of Public Works.
In response, Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪), spokeswoman for the Presidential Office, said that the office will take the city's proposal into consideration.
Administrative regulations promulgated by the Taipei City government specified that if illegal additions less than 30m2 were built before the end of 1994, the demolition could be delayed.
However, they must be torn down within 10 days after official notification to the owner if they were built after 1994.
The investigation was conducted by the bureau and was made public yesterday. It found that the illegal additions to the house were constructed between 1988 and 1989.
The area of the illegal additions totals 635m2. They include a swimming pool measuring 63m2, an expanded veranda measuring 210m2, and an additional roof-top structure measuring 152m2.
Liu emphasized that delaying the demolition of the illegal additions "does not necessarily mean that the city won't eventually tear them down."
In the meantime, Liu said, the city will try to revise the current bylaw regarding illegal construction within two months.
The city will also request the home owner to provide professional evaluation reports within two months to prove that the illegal additions pose no threat to public safety or water and soil conservation.
"If the reports prove otherwise, we would order the demolition of the illegal additions to the house," Liu said.
Since the controversy was brought to light a week ago, Lee has mentioned on several occasions that he was not bothered by the dispute.
"Everything will be fine because evidence will talk," he said during a tea party with the media last Sunday. "However, I feel sorry for causing trouble for the home owner, and I have telephoned him to apologize."
Lee added that he was not angry with the politician who used the incident to step up his own media exposure.
On Oct. 17, New Party City Councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) requested the city to demolish the illegal additions to the house because aerial photos taken in 1994 showed that the two-story home was illegally expanded.
In response to the bureau's decision yesterday, Lee Ching-yuan said that the city simply violates the Illegal Construction Act by delaying the demolition.
He also filed a petition to the Control Yuan, requesting it to conduct an investigation into the actions of the city government. He also asked for an investigation into the actions of the director of the public works bureau as well as the director of the building standards office, whom he accused of malfeasance.
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