Renovation project for Yangmingshan guest house attacked

Calling the project for Yi Yuan Guesthouse (逸園招待所) a violation of laws, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) and People First Party's Chang Show-foong (張曉風) both urged an evaluation committee to drop the plan at a meeting later this week that will be held to screen the proposal.

According to Lin, the project near the historic Chung-Shan Building (中山樓) is scheduled be carried out in the ROT (rent, operate and transfer) format with a selected developer from the private sector, with the government to retain full property rights.

The project, however, with an initial budget less than around NT$70 million does not conform to government regulations and has violated the Act for the Promotion of Private Participation in Infrastructure Projects (促進民間參與公共建設法), she told a press conference in the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.

The resort is also located at the Yangmingshan National Park, and the land is registered for administrative authorities' use only, the DPP legislator said.

According to regulations, land for administrative authorities can only be used to build facilities for holding activities involving conferences only.

”Rebuilding the guesthouse into a hot spring resort obviously violates the rule,” she added.

The military-use guesthouse was originally administrated under the Combined Logistics Command under the Ministry of National Defense (MND).

The MND signed an ROT contract with the Miramar Group (美麗華集團) in 2005 to renovate the guesthouse into a hot spring resort.

A review committee under the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is expected to hold a meeting tomorrow to review the proposal.

Once approved, it is likely to become the largest ROT project related to national parks to be handled by the Construction & Planning Agency (CPA) under the MOI which oversees the operations of the country's national parks.

MND's Response

Asked to comment, MND officials said the project was proposed in accordance with all related regulations.

It is a common practice that facilities constructed on land for administrative authorities are now into all kinds of resorts and recreational facilities, unidentified MND officials said in a United Evening News report yesterday.

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