Tearing down small factories for an urban expansion project in New Taipei City’s Sanchong (三重) and Lujhou (蘆洲) districts could spark mass unemployment, an environmental impact assessment (EIA) meeting found yesterday.
The meeting concluded that more information is needed on the project for further review.
The New Taipei City Government has proposed a 51.44 hectare urban renewal project in the two districts, including 21.6 hectares for residential development, 25 hectares for public infrastructure and about 2 hectares for industry.
According to the city government’s statistics, there are 96 factories currently in the planned area, but only seven are registered legal factories.
During the meeting, an official from the Industrial Development Bureau said that with many factories possessing upstream and downstream relationships with the factories in the proposed project area, it fears that if the factories are forced to close down or move from their current location, a mass employment problem — such as that of the former freeway toll collectors — would arise.
A committee member said that she worried that the small factories with limited income would be unable to pay rent, and said that the government should seek residents’ consent before planning for urban renewal.
Another committee member said that due to soil liquefaction and the area being close to a floodway, the size of the residential area should be reduced and the size of public amenities, especially parks, increased.
The city government said the residential area can only be reduced to about 10 hectares.
The city government added that the new industrial area can accommodate about 30 percent of the existing factories.
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