Opponents of the phase-II development of Tamhai New Town (淡海新市鎮) yesterday asked the central government to evaluate the deal’s social and economic impact on the community and to hold a public hearing before setting the boundaries for the land seizure.
As the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was scheduled to hold its fourth meeting on setting the boundaries of the development yesterday, dozens of residents of New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), environmental activists and Tamkang University students camped outside EPA headquarters beginning on Wednesday night, to appeal to the public on the issue.
They protested before the meeting started yesterday morning and demanded that members of the review board go over the details of the development deal line-by-line.
Photo: CNA
Lu Cheng-chung (盧正忠), who is with a group opposing the town’s further development, said they thought the EPA was helping the Ministry of Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency rush through the boundary-setting meetings to get them done in one day.
Lu said the proposed phase-II development would force more than 1,600 households to relocate. He added that the new development is unnecessary because there are still many unsold houses and underdeveloped properties within the boundaries of the phase-I development.
“The Construction and Planning Agency said that the land expropriated for the phase-II development would be used to build an eco-friendly city and a ‘paradise for elderly citizens,’ but we feel that our environment is already rich in terms of biodiversity,” Lu said. “It is really gratuitous to destroy the biodiversity and build an artificial eco-friendly city. The elderly people in the community are, on the other hand, happy and self-sufficient. They do not need to be relocated so that a ‘paradise’ can be built for them.”
Lu said the government has planned to seize about 1,200 hectares of land for the phase-II development, with most of the targeted area being farmland.
Ling Hong Ching-tze (林洪清子), who is in her 80s, said this was not the first time that the government has seized her property. She said that she was once asked to give up 661 hectares for a section of highway to be built, and was compensated with just NT$1.7 million (US$56,000 at current exchange rates).
She added that she has been approached again by developers because of the project.
She said she was told that she would have to swap a larger area of land for a smaller one and buy back the land that she owned.
“I am pretty content with the land I have now, which has natural water coming from Datunshan (大屯山),” she said. “How can I find the money to buy back the land? And I should not have to buy back land that is mine.”
Residents supporting the development responded with their own data, saying that 542 households would need to relocate.
Tamsui District Administrator Tsai Yeh-wei (蔡葉偉) said that about 157 hectares of land to be expropriated are fallow farmland, with no trees, endangered species or historical sites to be protected.
One woman held a poster bearing the signatures of other residents who support the proposed development. She said development is good for the community, since more than 70 percent of its young people have left town to seek jobs elsewhere.
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