Several residents in New Taipei City’s (新北市) New Banciao Special District project area yesterday protested in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) against an the expansion of a hotel project near their apartments that they say will block sunlight and create safety hazards due to narrow fire lanes.
Before the fourth Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) specialist meeting to review the project took place yesterday afternoon, several residents from the local community gathered to implore the EIA committee members to halt the expansion of the project.
Peng Yang-kae (彭揚凱), secretary-general of Organization of Urban Re-s, an NGO focusing on urban policy and community based reform, said the build–operate–transfer project by a development companies and the New Taipei City government would see the construction of two hotels and a banquet hall in a 9,240m2 area near the Banciao Station.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
However, while the original plan was set at a 450 percent floor area ratio, the city government has since offered the development companies more floor area after they proposed to construct certain facilities, such as a skywalk and more parking spaces, he said, adding that the floor area ratio now amounts to nearly 780 percent.
“The original plan was to have about 300 hotel rooms, but now it increased to about 1,100 rooms, and the number of hotels has also increased from one to three in the same size area,” a resident surnamed Kuo (郭) said.
“We are worried that providing such crowded accommodation to so many people in such a small area will only cause the environment to deteriorate,” Kuo added.
A local resident surnamed Wang (王) in her early 60s said: “We have three generations living under the same roof, and I am worried that the construction of the hotel project could prevent fire engines from reaching our apartment if a fire breaks out.”
She also said that the planned hotel buildings would be 32 stories tall and would block all the sunlight and wind.
Most of the residents are not against the hotel project in itself, but what they see as its overexpansion, and are also concerned about potential fire safety problems, as well as environmental damage, Peng said.
Since the project is on public property, the government should also consider the public’s interest rather than only trying to maximize the benefits to companies, Peng added.
The project gained conditional approval at the EIA meeting. Conditions included leaving a 6m- wide space between the new buildings and the existing apartments, which must be kept clear, and a pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS