A review committee yesterday gave conditional approval to the Taipei Dome construction project, paving the way for the construction of the long-stalled building amid ongoing protests by environmental activists who oppose the 500,000m2 commercial complex in downtown Xinyi District (信義).
Taipei City’s Environmental Impact Assessment Review Committee, by a vote of eight to five, approved the project on the condition that the developer reduce the size of the commercial facilities at the complex and increase the number of parking spaces.
The size of the commercial facilities, including a shopping mall, movie theater, hotel and office space, should be cut by 17.4 percent to 202,610m2, while parking space should be increased to 187,965m2, the committee said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The conditions also included adding another lane to Zhongxiao E Road, presenting a traffic plan that avoids traffic congestion in residential areas along the road and acquiring environmentally friendly building certification.
Committee chair Wu Sheng-chong (吳聖忠), commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, said after the three-hour meeting that the developer should meet all the requirements before construction can begin.
The decision put an end to the long-delayed environmental impact assessment for the project.
Committee members expressed concern about the profit-driven design of the complex and said the developer should devote more space to sports, while presenting comprehensive solutions to traffic congestion, among other environmental impacts.
Farglory Group, the developer, signed a contract with the city government in 2005 and planned to invest more than NT$23 billion (US$700 million) in the complex at the abandoned Songshan Tobacco Factory on Zhongxiao E Road, which would include a 40,000-seat indoor stadium.
Tsai Chung-i (蔡宗易), vice president of the group’s public relations department, said the company would estimate the impact of reducing the size of the commercial facilities on future profits, declining to confirm whether the company would continue with the project.
“[The conditional approval] of the Taipei Dome project is good news for the public because Taiwan needs a professional sports venue to host international events,” Tsai said after the meeting at Taipei City Hall. “However, as the contractor, we need to make sure for our shareholders that the operation of the complex is profitable.”
Environmental groups were not satisfied with the outcome.
Taiwan Green Party spokesman Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said city officials accounted for seven of the 13 committee members and Pan accused the city government of hijacking the review process.
“The review process and the voting were against procedural justice,” he said.
Farglory should send a revised project plan to the city’s urban development committee for approval, before applying for a construction license if it decides to cooperate with the requirements, the committee said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS