On Dec. 19th, Tainan City Government held a press conference on “open decision-making for the location of the new municipal center” to illustrate the origin, processes, results, and subsequent plans to the public and respond to suggestions provided by citizens.
The press conference was first held by Dr. Jian He-lin, who represented the organizer of the urban forum (National Association for the Promotion of Community Universities, NAPCU). The opening began by displaying a video that demonstrates the result of the open decision-making forum, and was followed by a presentation delivered by Chao Ching-hui, Chairperson of RDEC. Chairperson Chao stated that nearly 200 citizens took part in the discussion to decide the best location for Tainan’s new municipal center. The discussion and dialogue, which went on for a marathon day and a half, yielded the selection of three top candidate locations including the north side of Backloan Boulevard in Shanhua; the ABC periphery of the Southern Taiwan Science Park; and an area adjacent to Kan-see Farm in Sinshih (in order of questionnaire sequence rather than preference).
Chuang Te-liang, Deputy Director General of Urban Development Bureau, stated that the redevelopment of current administrative center should not be restricted to administration itself, instead, incorporating diversified land use opportunities, developing industries with local characteristics, and introducing night-time services are potential alternatives. In addition, Deputy Director Chuang also indicated that three top candidate locations selected for the new municipal center would go through a series of preliminary planning processes including site investigation, land use planning and financial feasibility assessment.
Thereafter, further details illustrated by Chairperson Chao indicated that citizens’ debates during “the fourth stage of open-decision making urban forum” and “online civic forum” took financial concerns into consideration and thus hope to maintain status quo.
In addition, Chairperson Chao pointed out that in 2017, the followed-up operations will be a preliminary planning process on the three candidate locations by Bureau of Urban Development. The process will consist of a presentation that explains subsequent plans, and meanwhile to draw up an advisory referendum scheduled in 2018.
When addressing at the end, Deputy Mayor Wu firstly appreciated the active citizen participation that enabled the urban forum to fulfil the value of democracy. He also pointed out that the city government will take both the consensus achieved in the forum and expectations from the Committee of Open Decision-making into account when formulating policies. Deputy Mayor Wu emphasized that the city government will seek the most transparent way to meet the citizens’ expectations. Via diverse channels of citizen participation, he hoped the public and private sectors could “minimize antagonism by dialogues” and “build freedom on equality”.