TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A member of Taipei City’s Urban Planning Commission refuted former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je's (柯文哲) lack of knowledge regarding the Core Pacific City development case.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Sept. 3), Tseng Kuang-tsung (曾光宗), a member of the committee that reviewed the Core Pacific City case and a professor at Chung Yuan Christian University Department of Architecture, said it was impossible Ko was unaware the floor area ratio (FAR) had been increased. Tseng said when Ko was mayor, the Core Pacific City development case had undergone six years of deliberation, with large property and financial interests at stake.

Tseng said he was a member of the Urban Planning Commission from January 2017 to the end of December 2020. During his time on the committee, there were five meetings between the committee members and Core Pacific City representatives, and five meetings held after his service. 

During the first meeting, Tseng said he withheld his opinion because he was unfamiliar with the project. In the subsequent meetings with the developer group, he felt their requests were illegal and unreasonable, and he objected to the proposal.

Tseng was not a member of the Urban Planning Commission when it approved a request to increase the FAR by 20% on Sept. 9, 2021. While Tseng did not participate in the final decision, he said future cases should abide by five criteria.

First, he said politicians should discriminate between right and wrong when facing powerful interest groups such as those associated with Core Pacific City. He said that Ko's response of “I don’t know” should not be an excuse.

He added the long and drawn-out approval process by the Urban Planning Commission showed the project was controversial. Many committee members had objections, and high-level municipal officials should have spent more time considering the pros and cons of the project.

Second, he said the Urban Planning Commission must be impartial. It is not responsible for helping applicants seek solutions to gain project approval.  

Third, private consortiums should not seek additional building capacity through illegal means. He said the public should be protected from the greed and corruption of developers.

Fourth, Tseng said that if members suspect laws have been violated, they should have the courage to raise their objections promptly. Failure to voice concerns in review meetings could be seen as tacit approval.

Finally, Tseng advocated abolishing the “floor area bonus mechanism,” the main cause behind corruption charges with Core Pacific City. He said the mechanism has led to problems with overdevelopment and increased environmental burden.