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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Hotel project fails to pass its review
Taitung residents and environmentalists yesterday protest outside the Environmental Protection Agency’s offices in Taipei against a hotel project that might damage archeological sites and coral reefs. Photo: Chen Wei-han, Taipei Times
By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
A hotel project in Taitung County’s Shanyuan Bay （杉原灣） failed to pass an environmental review yesterday, as the development is on an archeological site, while environmental groups said there are too many development plans in the county that could harm the environment.
The Dulan Bay Golden Sea Resort project, which plans to develop an 11.3-hectare area at Shanyuan Bay to build a 500-room hotel complex, is one of six planned hotel projects lining the bay, including the controversial Miramar Resort Hotel and Shanyuan Palm Beach Resort projects.
Yesterday’s review evaluated the alterations made to the Golden Sea project after it received an environmental approval in 2000, because construction did not begin three years after its initial approval, and it had to undergo an analysis of differences between current environmental conditions and conditions at the time of approval, according to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act （環境影響評估法）.
Dozens of Taitung residents and environmentalists protested against the project, saying the project would damage Fushan （富山） archeological sites and coral reefs, adding that the developer’s communication with Aboriginal communities was flawed.
Fushan archaeological sites are located on the bay’s southwest, where archeologists in 1989 found pottery remains that are important artifacts for understanding neolithic cultures in Taiwan.
“The discovery of Fushan archeological sites was before the project proposal, but the developer submitted the project anyway and offered to help conserve the sites. What kind of thinking is this? The developer got its priorities mixed up,” Eastern Area Development Alliance member Wu Ju-mei （吳如媚） said.
Shanyuan Bay has the largest coral reef on Taiwan’s east coast, but water quality at the bay has been deteriorating even without any construction taking place and it is likely that wastewater discharged by the hotel could cause massive death of coral reefs, Citizens of the Earth （COE） researcher Huang Fei-Yueh （黃斐悅） said.
“Since the passage of the Coastal Zone Management Act （海岸管理法） last year, there have been three planned hotel projects on Taitung’s coasts with a total capacity of 1,250 rooms trying to receive environmental approvals before stricter environmental review standards are implemented. The developments can overwhelm the environmental capacity of the area, which simply does not have that much tourism,” COE’s Hualien and Taitung offices director Tsai Chung-yueh （蔡中岳） said.
A representative of the Council of Indigenous Peoples said the area is a recognized Aboriginal homeland and the developer did not properly negotiate with Aboriginal communities to proceed with the project.
“The archeological sites encompass the whole development area. It is impossible for the construction to avoid damaging the sites. The Taitung County Government was wrong in selling undevelopable property to the developer and approving the resort project,” Environmental Protection Administration environmental impact assessment committee member Hsu Chi-min （徐啟銘） said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Tourists visit the beach at Shanyuan Bay in Taitung County on May 27, 2014. Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
