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Updated Friday, October 2, 2009 9:16 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Much ado about nothing regarding the Poai district

As a matter of fact, the re-zoning stirred up a hornet's nest. According to Ting Yu-chun, Taipei municipal director of urban development, developers will be compensated by transferring the floor space to be reduced from their taller structures to buildings they may erect in other parts of the city. That is easier said than done. Taipei has few choice areas where posh apartment complexes can be built. The county of Taipei, which will be converted into the special municipality of North City at the end of next year, has enough land for chic bed towns, but developers will have difficulty transforming the extra floor space into elegant apartments there. Guangdu may serve their purposes. The trouble, however, is that the Taipei municipal authorities have yet to plan for its development. Apartment owners will have a long nightmare. They have to move. To where? How much money will be given in compensation? One unofficial estimate places the cash compensation to developers and apartment owners at well over NT$100 billion (US$31 billion). We wonder whether the government of the capital city can afford it.

　　Under fire at the city council, mayor of Taipei Hau Lung-bin said on Tuesday he is doing as was told.“We are handling the matter in coordination with the central government,”he told angry city councilors.“Whether it (the expansion of the special district) is reasonable or not cannot be assessed,”he pointed out.

　　That is not quite true, President Ma's spokesman Tony Wang retorted. He said the Office of the President officially asked the city government in writing the middle of August to “reasonably regulate the height of all structures in the vicinity of the Office of the President and the official residence of the President.”Wang denied that the Office of the President ordered the expansion of the Poai district. But Ma's spokesman admitted the city government was asked not to“harm the interests”of developers by allowing them to transfer the excess floor space elsewhere. He did not say the reduction by at least 15 stories of the Ipinwan apartment estate was required by the National Security Bureau.

Well, Chang Kan-ping, deputy commander of the National Security Bureau's special service center, apologized yesterday for failure to explain the importance of President Ma's security needs. Wang also said nobody has ever insisted that the top 15 stories of the Ipinwan estate be dismantled.

What has happened is much ado about nothing.

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