Yilan farmhouse regulations unveiled, Chen Jinde starts a new battle! Farmhouse allocation "can refuse central government guidance" - Council of Agriculture: if this leads to legal violations, the local authorities are responsible

Text / Upstream and Downstream reporters Lai Yu-wei, Liu Yi-hsin

The Yilan farmhouse controversy, which had pitted the central and local governments against each other, had temporarily come to an end, but today (the 23rd) the battle has flared up again! In the face of the Council of Agriculture's firm stance that "farmhouses must be adjacent to roads and situated along the side, and farmhouses and agricultural facilities must be reviewed separately under different regulations," Yilan Acting County Magistrate Chen Chin-te today again announced at a county affairs meeting the new version of the "Yilan County Review Guidelines for Applications to Build Farmhouses on Agricultural Land" (hereinafter referred to as the "Farmhouse Guidelines"), stating that although the guidelines follow the Council of Agriculture's administrative guidance requiring farmhouses to be adjacent to roads and situated along the side, "farmers may refuse the guidance and choose the most suitable configuration."

In response to the Yilan County Government's claim that farmhouses being adjacent to roads and situated along the side is a major principle, yet the new guidelines quietly retain a proviso on configuration, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung said he "cannot accept" it, but at this stage can only wait for the local procedure to run its course; only if there is a violation of central regulations can further action be taken. Chen stressed that if farmers' applications subsequently run afoul of the law, the local government must bear responsibility; and for now the Council of Agriculture can only repeatedly urge all local governments to "implement according to central regulations."

Chen Chin-te stirs up the battle again; Yilan County Government: Farmers may refuse the Council of Agriculture's guidance and seek an "appropriate configuration"

The Yilan farmhouse controversy has been deadlocked for a long time. The Yilan County Government originally promised to "fully accept the central government's opinion and not combine farmhouses and agricultural facilities into a single review regulation," and also to communicate with the Council of Agriculture before announcing the new guidelines; those words are still ringing in our ears, yet now Yilan Acting County Magistrate Chen Chin-te has announced the new version of the Farmhouse Guidelines at the county affairs meeting, once again provoking a backlash from the Council of Agriculture.

What exactly is the proviso in the new version of the "Yilan County Review Guidelines for Applications to Build Farmhouses on Agricultural Land"? And why has it prompted the Council of Agriculture to cry out that it "cannot accept" it? Article 5 of the new guidelines explicitly states: "The configuration of farmhouse land shall follow the operational plan format in the attachment to the letter from the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, to guide applicants to configure the farmhouse in a rectangular shape on the side of the agricultural land boundary line and immediately adjacent to the road, or in another appropriate configuration that does not affect the agricultural production environment and rural development, and shall be limited to within a depth of 40 percent from the road-adjacent boundary line."

"Farmhouses 'in principle' must still be adjacent to roads and situated along the side," explained Yu Hsien-ting, Director-General of the Yilan County Government's Department of Agriculture, further clarifying that, however, taking into account special terrain or other agricultural types, as long as the agricultural production environment and rural development are not affected, farmhouses may choose an "appropriate configuration."

Yilan Acting County Magistrate Chen Chin-te stated that the Council of Agriculture's administrative guidance is not a regulatory order, official letter, or legal interpretation, and "farmers may refuse the guidance and choose the most suitable configuration." The county government is merely further stipulating that, under the premise of "not affecting the agricultural production environment" and "not affecting rural development," farmhouses must be configured within the range adjacent to the road and within a depth of 40%, to ensure that agricultural land is not fragmented.

The Yilan County Government further explained that under the current situation where farmhouses are adjacent to roads and situated along the edge in a single configuration, it may not necessarily suit the production patterns of various types of farming, forestry, fishing, and animal husbandry; living adjacent to the road makes entry and exit inconvenient, affecting daily functionality; building houses along the edge adjacent to the road obstructs sightlines and affects traffic safety; and when rural farm roads are widened in the future, farmhouses on the road-adjacent side will face demolition.

The Yilan County Government repeatedly stressed that this version of the "Yilan County Review Guidelines for Applications to Build Farmhouses on Agricultural Land" follows relevant central laws and regulations and the Council of Agriculture's guidance, and "from beginning to end there is no issue of loosening the rules."

Council of Agriculture: If local rules cause farmers' applications to run afoul of the law, the local government must bear responsibility

That said, regarding the substantive content of the Yilan County Government's new version of the "Yilan County Review Guidelines for Applications to Build Farmhouses on Agricultural Land," the central government still seems unable to accept it in full. Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung affirmed that the Yilan County Government is cooperating with central regulations and implementing the requirement that farmhouses be adjacent to roads and situated along the side; but regarding the proviso in the new operational guidelines about "within a depth of 40% from the road-adjacent boundary line, and other configurations that do not affect the agricultural production environment," Chen stressed, "There is no such thing as a 40% depth for configuration." If the local government wants to smuggle agricultural facilities into farmhouses, "the Council of Agriculture cannot accept it."

"Farmhouses are definitely 10%, it is written very clearly; agricultural facilities are also definitely 40%, that is also very clear." Chen Chi-chung repeatedly stressed that farmhouses and agricultural facilities must be "set separately"; the Council of Agriculture calls on local governments to formulate local operational guidelines in accordance with the central "Regulations for the Construction of Farmhouses on Agricultural Land" and the "Regulations for Reviewing Applications for Permitted Use of Agricultural Land for Agricultural Facilities," and "the content of the guidelines cannot contravene central regulations."

Faced with the Yilan County Government's determination to proceed, since local operational guidelines are not sent to the Council of Agriculture for approval and filing, the central government can currently only state that it must wait for the local procedure to run its course, and only if there is a contravention can the central government take a further procedural step. But once the local operational guidelines complete the local procedure and farmers apply in accordance with the local operational procedure, how should the Council of Agriculture handle it? Chen Chi-chung stated that if farmers' applications subsequently run afoul of the law, the local government must bear responsibility; but at this stage, the Council of Agriculture can only repeatedly urge all local governments to "implement according to central regulations."

Central and local governments out of step; Yilan County Government insists on taking effect on February 1

Seeing the Council of Agriculture's firm stance and its repeated statements that "central rules cannot be contravened," the Yilan County Government still vowed that the "Yilan County Review Guidelines for Applications to Build Farmhouses on Agricultural Land" and the "Yilan County Review Guidelines for Applications for Permitted Use of Agricultural Land for Agricultural Facilities" would officially take effect on February 1. Yu Hsien-ting stated that the current version of the farmhouse review guidelines has already been communicated with the central government.

The Yilan County Government has also formulated penalty measures for non-compliant farmhouses. Today the Yilan County Government listed six major types of non-compliance, including non-compliant use involving danger to public safety; illegal construction in progress (ongoing); land on which farmhouses cannot be built but where agricultural facilities have been unlawfully expanded for illegal construction and business operations; use for factories (excluding those that applied for temporary registration before June 2, 104 ROC [2015] under the Factory Management and Guidance Act); use for restaurants, markets, and convenience stores; and non-compliant cases where the projected area of illegally constructed buildings exceeds 100 sq m, which are classified as major non-compliance cases and penalized by the Land Administration Department and the Construction Department under the Regional Planning Act and the Urban Planning Act.

The county government stated that newly built farmhouses will adopt the new guidelines, while existing farmhouses will be comprehensively inspected every year from June 1 to August 31, with comprehensive aerial photography of Yilan County's agricultural land, and classified and registered according to the severity and timing of the non-compliance, and handled by category. Cases of non-agricultural use before ROC year 89 [2000] will be recorded and listed for control by the Department of Agriculture; cases of non-agricultural use after ROC year 89 [2000] will be guided under the new operational guidelines with a deadline for improvement; if improvement is not made by the deadline, penalties will then be imposed under the "Regional Planning Act" and the "Urban Planning Act."