The Cabinet is close to finalizing a draft amendment to the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例) that would establish a three-stage review process and lay a legal foundation for the government to demolish holdout houses to expedite urban renewal projects.
The draft amendment would present a sweeping overhaul of urban renewal regulations, with a three-stage review process to prevent potential disputes, Deputy Minister of the Interior Hua Ching-chun (花敬群) said.
In the first stage, urban renewal project would have to be submitted to the local government’s urban renewal review committee, which determines whether individual projects fit within the city’s overall urban development plan, and the review process would screen out gratuitous reconstruction plans to prevent property hoarding and profit-seeking practices, Hua said.
In the second stage, review committees are to determine whether the scope of a reconstruction plans is justifiable, Hua said, adding that the committees would be redefined as arbitrators of renewal disputes instead of their current role of “awarding extra floor space to land developers.”
In the third stage, hearings are to be held for any renewal project that fails to obtain the consent of all homeowners involved, after which the review committee would determine the scoping of the project, Hua said.
After completing a three-stage review process, local governments will be authorized to demolish “nail houses,” but the authorities would be required to negotiate with homeowners in advance about the date and the method of demolition, as well as relocation plans, Hua said.
The negotiation has to be completed in 60 days to prevent delays in reconstruction, Hua added.
“Cases like Wenlin Yuan (文林苑) or ‘hostile property hoarding’ will no longer happen,” he said, referring to a controversial urban renewal project in 2012 in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) in which the city government demolished townhouses owned by a family named Wang (王) despite the family members’ refusal to sell them.
“People who deliberately raise the property price and those who refuse to participate in a renewal project due to purely personal reasons which are opposed to public interests, such as preserving a family house, will face forced demolition,” Hua said.
“Following one or two [demolition] cases, the public will begin to understand and the government will be less hesitant [to demolish houses],” he said.
The proposed amendment would also include a maximum of 12 years of property tax deduction for reconstructed homes and a 40 percent land value increment tax deduction for participants in renewal projects, to encourage reconstruction, Hua said.
Under the proposal, if more than half of the properties involved in a government-led renewal project are privately owned, the project cannot be initiated until it obtains the approval of at least half of the homeowners, Hua said.
The amendment has been approved by both the Cabinet and the Democratic Progressive Party caucus, and the Executive Yuan is to approve it on Thursday next week and submit it to the Legislative Yuan for review, he said.
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