The city government is considering requiring design changes to the Taipei Dome construction project, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
“Frankly speaking, we think that changes are warranted to the design,” Ko said. “How to evacuate in the case of an emergency is something that concerns me greatly as mayor.”
He said that because traffic on Zhongxiao E Road, which borders the project site, is congested during rush hours, there are concerns about what would happen if 60,000 people had to be evacuated from the completed facility.
Photo: CNA
Ko said the city government was considering clearing some office space on Guangfu S Road to open up additional evacuation routes, adding that the city would have to thoroughly research potential changes to zoning and traffic flow before negotiating with Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), to which the city outsourced the project.
Any city government demands for design changes to the project could further complicate existing talks to renegotiate the project contract.
Ko said the city government has not yet laid out a clear position on whether royalties that the firm must pay to the city government should be raised because of design changes, which would affect Farglory’s bottom line.
Meanwhile, Ko said the city government is on weak legal ground compared with real-estate developer Radium Life Tech Co, though he expressed confidence that the firm would fall in line with city demands over the MeHAS City development project.
The firm has been accused of benefiting from allegedly forged cost estimates by city officials that were used to apportion profits for the joint development project, with Ko last month demanding that the firm fork over NT$7.6 billion (US$240.4 million), an estimate of how much the city has been short-charged.
On Monday, Ko said the company’s actions amounted to “eating human flesh with a knife and fork,” saying they were wrong even if nothing was done illegally.
“Because many actions are ‘legal,’ but not reasonable, if we fight on legal grounds, there is a high probability that the city will lose,” Ko said yesterday, adding that one major reason was that, unlike corporations, the city could not afford to hire the best lawyers and accountants.
However, Ko expressed confidence that the firm would get in line, because it was implicated in a “pile” of related cases that could give the city leverage over the firm.
He said the city government would consider entering into mediation with Radium Life Tech to resolve disputes over the MeHAS City project, but not on the core issue that the firm should compensate the city for the amount it is accused of owing.
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