A pre-environmental impact assessment (EIA) inspection of a National Palace Museum expansion project yesterday met with protests from local residents, who said the project poses safety risks and could increase traffic congestion near their neighborhoods because of the flawed design of a parking lot dedicated to tour buses.
Taipei Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Liou Ming-lone (劉銘龍) told a meeting in Shilin District (士林) that due to amendments to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (環境影響評估法) putting local governments in charge of overseeing establishments of cultural and educational facilities, the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in January transferred the project to the department.
The project, which is now in the second stage of EIA review, would see the construction of a new exhibition building to accommodate the large number of tourists who visit the museum.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The exhibition building would consist of three underground levels and four above ground levels. It sproposed location is along slopes on both sides of a plaza in front of the museum.
The museum said it wanted to build 198 underground parking spaces for tour buses in a planned “arts and culture” park opposite the museum on Zhishan Road.
The expansion project would cover 7 hectares and have a total floor space of 146,397m2, the museum said.
A resident, Chang Wen-tan (張文潭), who leads a group of locals opposed to the project, criticized the EPA’s amendment of the act, saying that the project is rife with controversy and accused the EPA of shifting its responsibility to the city government.
Campaigner Lien Yan-tsun (練燕村) said that as excavation work necessary for the new building would take place at the foot of the slopes, compromising their integrity, landslides could occur.
She said that visitor numbers could be effectively alleviated by using two vacant buildings at the museum and questioned the necessity of the expansion.
She said that the expansion was proposed in a bid to increase more exhibition space, but only about 15 percent of the additional floor space would be used for exhibitions, while a substantial portion of the space has been planned for stores.
She said the planned parking lot is too close to Gugong Road; consequently, tour buses arriving at the museum via the road would have to wait on the strip between Gugong and Zhishan roads just in front of the Ziqiang Tunnel (自強隧道) — which Lien said can only hold four tour buses at any given time — blocking the lanes on Zhishan Road.
Museum Deputy Director Chou Chu-kun (周茿昆) said the museum would consider Lien’s input at an internal review.
The campaigners said department officials did not consider two museum facilities as alternatives to the development plan and demanded that EIA committee members make an extempore change of itinerary to inspect the sites.
Despite objections from committee members, Liou said that a public hearing on the project would not be held before a second inspection.
EPA officials could not be reached for comment as of press time last night.
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