The Executive Yuan today approved draft amendments to the Urban Renewal Act, which Premier Sean Chen said were needed to protect and balance the rights of different groups. The amendments are also aimed at promoting government-led redevelopment projects, facilitating more cases involving public property, and addressing disputes and problems encountered by the public.
Premier Chen said decades of rapid economic growth and urban expansion have brought about a dramatic surge in Taiwan's urban population. But some older-district buildings are showing signs of structural distress and lack earthquake or disaster mitigation abilities. These dilapidated structures not only mar a city's appearance but also impair urban functionality. Hence, there is an urgent need to regenerate and improve city environments to ensure the public's safety.
The premier said the latest round of amendments, pending approval by the Legislature, will help settle issues that most concern the public, such as builders and property owners receiving different information, important notices not being delivered, forced expropriation and demolition of property, timing for preselling rebuilt homes, and small landowners stalling the redevelopment of larger, neighboring public land. The amended law will create a stronger, fairer and more reasonable urban renewal mechanism. As for implementation measures after the amendments are passed, the premier instructed the Ministry of the Interior to begin preparing now and gather redevelopment suggestions from builders as reference.
The amendments propose the following:
1. To promote open information and increase people's participation, a new stipulation should be added on methods for disclosing information and delivering notices to concerned parties. (Articles 5 and 6)
2. To make a business summary more representative of the property owners, restrictions on the business summary's applicants should be modified, and the application should receive agreement from a higher percentage of owners. When the business summary is submitted to local authorities for approval, it must contain specific items that will facilitate the review. (Article 20)
3. To reduce disputes over the implementation of an urban renewal business plan and to provide stronger protection of rights, the minimum percentage of owners agreeing on the business plan should be raised, and restrictions on owners revoking their agreements should be modified. (Article 36)
4. Because the method of joint construction agreement results from private negotiation on allocation of owners' rights values, it will affect the owners' allocations under the method of rights transformation. To ensure allocations are fair and reasonable, the method of rights transformation should be adopted if the redevelopment implementer cannot obtain unanimous agreement from owners. (Delete original Article 25-1)
5. Neighboring plots of public land that have reasonable usage purposes but cannot be successfully combined should not have to undergo renovation. To protect public assets, the government should supervise the development of blocks of public land that reach a certain size. (Article 43)
6. Property sales may not be conducted until after the owner demolishes or removes all land improvement assets from the rights transformation renewal area. Violators will be subject to penalties, to protect buyers of presold units. (Articles 53 and 78)
7. If the competent authority is asked to demolish or remove land improvement assets on behalf of the implementer, the authority should first arbitrate the dispute between the implementer and property owner. Any party dissatisfied with the arbitration results may file an administrative appeal. This will accelerate renewal progress while also protecting the owners, managers and users of land improvement assets. (Article 55)
8. If a redevelopment project is implemented using the method of rights transformation, all funds used or provided by redevelopment organizations, urban regeneration associations and investors should be put in a dedicated trust fund to lower implementation risks and protect property owners. (Article 61)
9. As an incentive for implementers and owners to adopt the method of joint construction agreement (which requires agreement from all owners), the government should reduce the land value incremental tax and deed tax collected at the time of title transfer, provided such method is used. (Article 66)
10. So as not to affect the progress of projects underway, a transitional provision should be added to permit previously approved renewal projects to continue following regulations in effect at the time of approval. (Article 83)