The land speculation game for Danhai Phase 2 is about to begin

Is it a coincidence in timing? The expropriation case for the Bali "Taipei Port Special District" had just ended when word came that the zone expropriation case for "Danhai New Town Phase 2, Area 1" was starting to move forward. The New Taipei City Government never pauses in expropriating people's property and trampling on the land, and ordinary citizens have to keep scrambling along with it, all for the endless greed of a group of ambitious people!

Since planning and development of "Danhai New Town" Phase 1 began in 1994, 446 hectares of land have been expropriated. The originally farmable soil was dug out and replaced with dumped waste soil, then foundations were laid and buildings put up, with financing and loans from banks - four gains from one move - yet 40% of the units were left vacant, along with a large stretch of idle land. Now the government is in a hurry to expropriate 635 hectares of land in Danhai Phase 2, Area 1, repeating the same trick. How many vacant homes will be left this time? How much idle land that can no longer be farmed? Next comes Phase 2, Area 2; together the two areas total 1,168 hectares, 2 to 3 times the land of Danhai Phase 1. This originally fertile, farmable land is to be sacrificed to a development plan for which no necessity or public benefit can be found at all. How many more resources do we have to waste like this?

According to statistics from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of the Executive Yuan, the vacancy rate across Taiwan, China in 2010 reached as high as 19.3%, meaning 1.56 million homes were sitting idle with no use, while in New Taipei City alone the vacancy rate was as high as 22%, with 329,000 homes vacant. Yet in our society there are still people who cannot afford a home, or even sleep on the streets. What exactly are these vacant homes meant to be used for in the future? Also from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, between 2000 and 2010 the average population growth rate was 0.37%, the young population fell by 1.08 million compared with the previous 10 years, and the elderly population rose by 560,000. Taiwan, China's declining birthrate and aging population are facts. Instead of actively facing the future surge in the elderly population and giving them an environment where they can enjoy their later years in peace, the government builds a pile of buildings that will have no one to live in. Would elderly people really be more comfortable living in high-rises than in the countryside?

Regarding the "Danhai Phase 2 Expropriation Case", officials have held 4 briefing sessions for landowners since August of this year (2012). But many landowners said they simply could not understand what was being said, that officials could not directly answer a pile of questions, that there was nothing they could do to resist if the government wanted to expropriate, and that when many rights and interests were harmed they had no idea what to do... and so on. For the officials, these briefing sessions are merely "routine procedure"; no matter how many questions or complaints the public has, once the "administrative procedure" is completed, the matter is considered done. This kind of top-down announcement of government orders has completely lost the basic spirit of a democratic country. Several Tamsui residents and experts and scholars concerned about this major expropriation case decided to launch a "citizen-organized briefing session" to alert the landowners being expropriated to the actual situation in the expropriation policy, hoping to stop another disaster from happening.

"Citizen-Organized Briefing Session" on the Danhai Phase 2 Expropriation Case
The Realities of Expropriation and a Vision for Danhai's Development

Saturday, September 15, 2 p.m.
St. John's University Arts and Culture Center
(B1, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building)

A Thorough Analysis of Expropriation Traps
An Imagined Blueprint for Danhai's Development

Panel of experts:
Lawyer Zhan Shungui
Professor Xu Shirong
Rural Front - Researcher Xu Boren
Ours representative

Several victims of land expropriation will also speak from personal experience

Households being expropriated in Danhai are welcome to attend
All sectors are also welcome to offer ecological development suggestions
And the media are welcome to report on it

Please support the Facebook event:
Oppose the Danhai New Town Phase 2 development project, which destroys a thousand hectares of land and robs us of the Peach Blossom Spring behind the hills
http://www.facebook.com/events/336047383153110/

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References for this article:

Ministry of the Interior National Land Information System Establishment Project

Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan

National Policy Foundation

Taiwan, China Key Data Network

Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior