Supporters and opponents of the Taiwan Knowledge-based Economy Flagship Park project in Jhubei City (竹北), Hsinchu County, yesterday faced off against each other when both groups rallied outside the Construction and Planning Agency (CPA) as the agency met to review the project.
Opponents of the project cheered, while the supporters were furious when it was announced that the committee had not approved the project.
“Stop robbing farmland from farmers,” opponents of the project shouted from one side.
“Fake farmers, stop harming our children and grandchildren,” supporter shouted back from the other side.
Peng Kuang-hui (彭光輝), a professor at National Taipei University of Technology’s Graduate Institute of Architecture and Urban Design, who presided over the meeting, said the county government failed to explain why it was absolutely necessary to locate a development project on land that had been designated a special agricultural zone, whether the project would have an impact on food self--sufficiency and why such a large area was needed for the project if only research and development facilities — not production facilities — were going to be built in the project.
The county government can appeal the decision if it can answer those questions, Peng said.
The two groups gathered in front of the agency headquarters in Taipei in the morning as the agency’s Urban Planning Committee met to discuss whether to approve the project.
The project first started with National Chiao Tung University’s (NCTU) proposal in 1999 to build a 40-hectare campus in Jhubei.
After the government approved the university’s proposal, the project gradually expanded into a development site requiring more than 300 hectares of land that would include not only the NCTU campus, but also industrial, biomedical research and residential zones.
The expanded project met resistance from local farmers, because the region had been designated as a special agricultural zone by the Council of Agriculture for its excellent quality of its soil, irrigation and produce.
“It would be simply unacceptable to local farmers who have been living there [on the planned project site] for generations like myself if the central government approves this project,” said Tien, who has won several awards for the quality of rice from his paddies in Jhubei. “It’s horrible that the government is trying to take over such excellent farmland which produces such good produce.”
Tien questioned the sincerity of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policy to promote food self--sufficiency in Taiwan, which is currently at about 32 percent.
Hsieh Chien-hsiang (謝見祥), a farmer in his 80s, said if the government took away his land, it would not only take away his -property, but also his livelihood and his means of survival.
“According to the Constitution, it’s the government’s responsibility to protect the people’s rights to property, to survival and to work,” he said, speaking in Hakka. “This is a government of robbers.”
On the other side of the standoff, Jhubei City’s Shising Borough (十興) Chief Hsu Ting-chang (徐鼎昌) urged the agency to approve the project as soon as possible.
“We need more development in Jhubei so that our children and grandchildren can stay in their hometown and work instead of going elsewhere,” Hsu said. “It’s been 11 years since the project was first proposed — the government should make up its mind right away.”
Hsu said that since large amounts of water had been diverted to the nearby Hsinchu Science Park, it was not possible for the area to remain a purely agricultural zone as it has been for hundreds of years, and therefore other forms of development were needed.
“Whether opposing or supporting it, we’re tired of facing off against each other,” he added.
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