[Investigation] Consortiums rush in to speculate in Jiaoxi, council shields rezoning with profits exceeding 1 billion! Ever Rich Duty Free heir and Legislator Cheng Pao-ching's wife splash 900 million hunting land

By the Shangxiayou editorial team and Shangxiayou special correspondent Liang Hung-pin

In recent years, apart from farmhouses, Jiaoxi's "hot spring homes" have been the big ticket item in Yilan land speculation! Shangxiayou investigated 90 transactions one by one from the "actual price registration" data and found that in the "Jiaoxi Leisure Resort Area Urban Land Readjustment," fully one quarter of the land was snapped up by consortiums and developers within just five years, preparing to build hot spring homes and hotels after readjustment, with a total amount exceeding 3.2 billion yuan! Among the four transactions exceeding 100 million yuan were Ever Rich Duty Free heir (also Ever Rich's current general manager) Chiang Chien-ting, "Cheng Feng Construction," Taoyuan-based builder "Han Yi Company," and "Ho Lien Development" under the name of Legislator Cheng Pao-ching's wife Chuang Ju-lien. The Ever Rich heir and Legislator Cheng Pao-ching's wife alone splashed 900 million yuan hunting land.

Beyond the massive land transaction windfall stirred up before readjustment, after readjustment the profits from "cost-bearing land" alone are estimated to exceed 1 billion yuan, further arousing covetous interest from all sides. The Yilan County Government advocates "public readjustment," in which proceeds from the sale of cost-bearing land, after deducting necessary readjustment expenses, revert to the public. However, landowners advocate "self-initiated readjustment," in which cost-bearing land profits go to private hands, while subsequent public infrastructure still must be paid for by all citizens. The Yilan County Council shielded it three times, deleting all funding for public readjustment, and the enormous development interests behind this are self-evident.

Chen Pi-yuan: Self-initiated surpluses go private, leaving a mess for all citizens to pay for, inconsistent with fairness and justice

Jiaoxi's previous self-initiated urban land readjustments spawned many problems. In the "Block Three" urban land readjustment, the quality of public facilities was low, with not even water supply or drainage systems. Another advantage of public urban land readjustment is that subsequent warranty responsibility lies with the government. After self-initiated urban land readjustment, once the readjustment association disbands, the mess left behind still must be paid for by all citizens.

Chen Pi-yuan, director of "Kao Yuan Real Estate Joint Office," who has long studied Yilan real estate trends, said the controversy over public versus self-initiated readjustment in the "Jiaoxi Leisure Resort Area Urban Land Readjustment Case" arose because after the opening of the Hsuehshan Tunnel, Jiaoxi hot spring homes and hot spring hotels became a vacation mecca for northern Taiwan, and housing prices kept rising, at their peak selling for over 500,000 yuan per ping. Whether the enormous land surpluses from subsequent development after readjustment should revert to the public treasury or be divided up by the readjustment association is the crux of the public versus self-initiated controversy.

Chen Pi-yuan pointed out that before the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened, at the "Nanmen Readjustment Area," where Yilan's largest department store, Luna Plaza, is located, and at the "County Government Center Readjustment Area," now the county government site with luxury villas, land was auctioned at only 50,000 yuan per ping and still couldn't be sold. After the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened, the "Wushi Harbor Readjustment Area" made money, and together with the earlier self-initiated readjustment area around the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in front of Jiaoxi Railway Station, consortiums raced to build hot spring homes and hot spring hotels, which is why the self-initiated faction, having tasted the sweetness, refused to let go.

Chen Pi-yuan stressed that urban planning has a system known as "development rights." In the UK, after urban renewal or readjustment, land gains from "development rights" all revert to the government and are shared by all citizens, and the government must also bear the maintenance of public facilities after urban readjustment. If self-initiated surpluses go to private hands, leaving a mess for all citizens to pay for, that too is inconsistent with the principle of fairness and justice.

Enormous development interests: whom are the councilors shielding?

The Yilan County Government advocates that this urban land readjustment should be public, and submitted the design drawings within the regional plan for review, with roads and public facilities all planned out. This year, responding to rising land prices, the county government also raised the landowner land allocation ratio from 55% to 56.5%, with completion expected in 3 years. But when the budget was submitted to the council, it was deleted every time. Last year, under pressure from the "Alliance for Promoting Public Urban Land Readjustment" organized by Yilan civil groups, and fearing further delays, they cut through the knot, setting a record in Yilan County Council history as the first time a budget was deleted at first reading, and this year history repeated itself.

The "Alliance for Promoting Public Urban Land Readjustment" sharply criticized that this case has dragged on for nine years, during which some councilors even brought deities into the council to declare that "only if there's profit to be funneled should it be self-initiated," yet ultimately changed face and advocated self-initiated readjustment; a former Kuomintang speaker even used vulgar language to insult former county magistrate Lin Tsung-hsien. Plainly put, it is the enormous development interests behind it all: public readjustment surpluses from price appreciation revert to the county treasury, while self-initiated profits go to the readjustment association privately. These councilors with their unsightly conduct have long been tied to consortiums and land developers.

Furthermore, many hot spring homes and large hotels in Jiaoxi, similar to many other places in Yilan, are built into super-high-rise buildings by expanding floor area through "transfer of development rights." "Who moved away the people's cheese?" Development rights should be public assets, with benefits shared by all citizens, rather than a trick and commodity for consortium land speculation. From Jiaoxi's tenfold excessive development in recent years, one cannot help but ask, "Who profited from land speculation after the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened?"

Local Jiaoxi residents: Lamenting their hometown's transformation, hot springs drying up

Eleven years after the Hsuehshan Tunnel opened, Yilan went from backcountry to backyard. In Yilan, farmhouses are speculation material, and hot spring homes are no different. After excessive extraction, Jiaoxi's hot spring water temperature has dropped ten degrees, and the county government's total extraction cap for hot springs was long ago reached. Endless construction of high-rises and hotels ultimately only depletes hot spring resources. And look at these hot spring luxury homes, on weekday evenings they are completely pitch dark. Local Jiaoxi residents, besides lamenting their hometown's transformation, can do nothing about it.

Compared with the farmhouse issue, in the "Jiaoxi Leisure Resort Area Urban Land Readjustment," consortium land speculation, political profiteering and government-business collusion are even more naked and filthy! A Mr. Wei, whose family has lived in the area for generations, said helplessly: "It's all those outside landowners shouting about public or self-initiated readjustment. I've lived here since I was a child. Does it make any difference whether it's done or not? Whatever, I don't care!"