Changhua South Industrial Park: Changhua County Government's Self-Rescue Association for Land Requisition Failure Turns to Land Leasing: What's the Rush?
The Changhua County Government plans to expropriate nearly 100 hectares of Taiwan Sugar Corporation farmland for the "Changnan Industrial Park," a development project to convert the land to the tire industry. Recently, because the land expropriation process has not gone smoothly, the county government intends to instead lease the land from Taiwan Sugar for one year. This morning, the Save the Changnan Industrial Park Self-Rescue Association went to the county government headquarters to protest, shouting, "County Magistrate Cho Po-yuan, what exactly are you rushing for?" Changhua writer Wu Sheng and several environmental groups also came to show their support, demanding that the county government halt this "absurd development project." In response, the Changhua County Government said that the procedure for the Changnan Industrial Park development project is open and everything is being done in accordance with the law.
Changhua County Government Blocked From Expropriating Taiwan Sugar Farmland, Switches to a One-Year Lease
The planned site of the Changnan Industrial Park is near the high-speed rail line, covers an area of 98.28 hectares, and is currently Taiwan Sugar's Shuiwei Farm. On the 16th of last month, the Ministry of the Interior's Land Expropriation Review Committee discussed the Changhua County Government's plan to expropriate Taiwan Sugar's Shuiwei Farm, and the Save the Changnan Industrial Park Self-Rescue Association raised questions including how water sources would be obtained, whether land subsidence would affect high-speed rail safety, and why existing industrial land was not being used.
After hearing both sides from the Changhua County Government and the self-rescue association, Liao Pen-chuan, associate professor in the Department of Real Estate and Built Environment at National Taipei University, also questioned the phenomenon of "Taiwan Sugar land being given away generously": "Why has long-idle industrial land (still used for agriculture) never been able to be reclassified back to agricultural land? Can the agricultural production environment only keep deteriorating? Will the Shuiwei Farm in Xizhou, Changhua, be another stretch of good farmland about to disappear?"
The Changhua County Government's plan to expropriate Taiwan Sugar's Shuiwei Farm encountered many questions regarding public benefit and necessity. To avoid delaying the development project, it therefore sent an official letter to Taiwan Sugar, switching to leasing this land from Taiwan Sugar for one year. Once Taiwan Sugar agrees, construction can effectively begin.
Changhua County Government: Taiwan Sugar's Shuiwei Farm Is Not an Important Grain Production Base
In response to this morning's protest by the self-rescue association and environmental groups, the Changhua County Government said that the Changnan Industrial Development Park is an industrial zone registered and planned in accordance with the Industrial Innovation Act, that the development procedure is open, transparent, and complete, that everything is done in accordance with the law, and that the current condition of the development land, Taiwan Sugar's Shuiwei Farm, is flatland afforestation, sugarcane cultivation, and some land leased for contract farming of vegetables and fruits, and is "not an important grain production base."
As for whether this nearly 100-hectare piece of Taiwan Sugar farmland will be expropriated or leased, and how the possible pollution problems will be handled, Sun Chung-hsing, deputy director of the Changhua County Government's Public Works Department, said that "everything is still in the deliberation process."