A coalition of civic groups yesterday called for increased protection for people affected by urban renewal projects as the Legislative Yuan began to review a draft amendment to the Administrative Appeals Act (行政訴訟法) aimed at improving legal remedy in urban development disputes.
The amendment, which was proposed by the Judicial Yuan in December last year based on the Council of Grand Justices’ Constitutional Interpretation No. 742, would allow people to appeal a government urban development project at a High Administrative Court for perceived rights infringements.
Currently, only urban development projects that are issued in the form of an administrative injunction and forced eviction orders can be appealed.
Photo: Ke Yu-hao, Taipei Times
By submitting the draft amendment, “the Judicial Yuan has opened a new door, but that door is not wide open,” Taiwan Anti-Forced Eviction Alliance member Hsu Yi-fu (徐亦甫) said.
“We believe there is still much room for improvement,” Hsu added.
Under the amendment, if the court finds a government urban development project to be illegal, it could partially or fully nullify the project, or simply require the government to provide fair compensation to residents affected by a project, he said.
However, civic groups worry that the option of compensation could be improperly applied, Hsu said.
“The amendment does not include any prerequisite for such a ruling, leaving it completely up to the judge to decide,” he added.
Moreover, it fails to take into account forced evictions that take place before an urban development project is approved, a phenomenon unique to Taiwan, Environmental Rights Foundation researcher Lin Pi-hsiu (林必修) said.
Under the Land Expropriation Act (土地徵收條例), the government can expropriate land based on a draft development plan up to a year before it is officially approved, she said.
An urban development project cannot be appealed until it has been approved by the government, but by then “your house would already be gone,” she said, adding that the amendment would be like “water that is too far away to save you from a fire.”
The legislature should include provisions that allow residents to appeal a development project before forced eviction takes place, she said.
Government land development projects are always portrayed as being in the “public interest,” but to what extent that is true should stand up to scrutiny in a court, National Chengchi University land economics assistant professor Tai Hsiu-hsiung (戴秀雄) said.
While projects might be designed to promote public interest, their execution could be carried out in ways that favor certain politicians, he said.
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