Municipal Tracking: Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office|How the Government-led Urban Renewal can gain public trust
Speakers in this episode: Deputy Secretary-General Chen Xinliang of the Taipei City Government, Deputy Director Jian Sefang of the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office, Chief Xu Weien, Recruitment Planner Zheng Boyun, Chief Yang Mingze, and Project Planner Luo Haoqun (ordered in
order of appearance in the video )

A brief discussion on Taipei’s urban development

TOD and EOD are actually the renewal plan of an area of Taipei City government . When making an area renewal plan, the Taipei City government will have a complete design guideline on how to maintain circulation lines, which side should be updated, which side should be renovated and maintained, and whether there are any special cultural assets that must be preserved, or what kind of public services can be provided? These considerations are included in TOD and EOD plans. To put it simply, TOD is an imagination of regional renewal centered on MRT stations, while EOD is an imagination of regional development centered on schools.


What is Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office doing?

. A communication bridge that brings people closer
The Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office is not like a general office where official documents are issued, but matters that involve the rights of many people. Therefore, there are many compromises in the process, such as communication with the public, communication with professionals, etc. To deal with these problems, our colleagues in the department spent a lot of extra time to understand the problems behind them.
District renewal plan, how to do it?
The so-called “District renewal plan” will target, for example, the streets around a certain MRT station, which may be within 500 meters. They may have urban renewal projects in the future, and we need to take advantage of the opportunities for urban renewal in the future to Meet the public welfare needs of the place, and then develop an outline guidance plan for the urban renewal of the place.
. Indispensable plan promoter

Deputy Director Jian Sefang believes that the Update Department is a good field because the business of the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office is very diversified. Just the most basic acceptance and review of urban renewal applications covers a lot of matters. First, the involvement of professional fields, such as architecture, valuation, urban planning, land, etc., are all included in plans and rights transfer plans. Second, it is the ability to communicate with the public. This ability can be accumulated in the process of this work.
How to communicate with the public?
. Listen to public opinion from the perspective of the local leaders and the people.

Planner Zheng Boyun of the Renewal and Development Department shared her communication experience: before holding a briefing meeting, it is very important to understand the opinions of local colleagues, district chiefs or local public opinion representatives, because local public opinion representatives and district chiefs communicate with residents, sometimes in Reaching consensus is relatively smooth, and they can help act as a bridge between the city and ordinary residents.
In addition to emphasizing local integration, Government-led Urban Renewal case management also emphasizes public welfare. The public welfare may not only be for the people of this community, but may also include the needs of elderly care and infant care, the construction of social housing, or in fact, the places where these public cases are handled may require that a certain proportion of public welfare feedback be provided. Just cover up some feedback. Discuss whether a park can be planned or social housing provided.
Government-led Urban Renewal, what is that for?
. Solve urban problems through Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office
You can sometimes see why such a large area of land seems to be occupied by illegal buildings, and why is no one dealing with it? In fact, most of these occupied lands are public lands. The management agencies of public lands do not have the ability or energy to deal with the problem of occupation. In this case, urban renewal will be a way. Especially in poor areas like Taipei City, after renewal and development, certain areas are released as open spaces, setbacks, etc., which also greatly improves the city appearance.

Therefore, the Government-led urban renewal upgrade to 1.0 has two goals: first, to deal with shabby areas and locations where builders are unwilling to intervene. 2. Deal with idle public land that has not yet been developed, causing a shabby state in the city’s appearance.
In general, during the process of urban renewal, builders spend more time dealing with matters related to the distribution of public rights, but Government-led urban renewal are even different. The public office must also look at and assist this community. In addition to sorting out these individual rights, it is also important to investigate how many disadvantaged people there are and the administrative assistance they need.

For example, when Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office was working on the third phase of Lanzhou-Siwen Village Resettlement Community, all the bureaus and offices of the Taipei City government worked together to help – including the Social Affairs Bureau to take stock of all vulnerable populations and the assistance they needed; in addition, there was also the health department The bureau and other bureaus can properly settle the residents living in Lanzhou-Siwen Village during or after the city update. This is a big difference between public schools and ordinary private schools.
. Determination to “glue the community back”

How to manage a very large community? Where will the community go in the future? In fact, this is a very complex issue. The Taipei City goverment sent the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office to that place, which means that it decided to start renewal and reconstruction. Then, Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office must take this step – to “stick the community back” and let everyone know that we need each other and no one can be left out. Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office hopes to stimulate and stimulate this point.
Project planner Luo Haoqun said: “It’s hard for us to imagine what a 50-year-old house will look like in another 10 years. So if the public expects and asks, ‘Why wasn’t my house chosen?’ or ‘Why were they chosen in those weird areas?’ Everyone must know that there are always priorities. “The Constitution stipulates that everyone’s right to survival must be protected. As a public sector, we must rescue those who need to be rescued first. This is the goal and responsibility of the Department.
See more, go further
. Update strategies that are more relevant to the current situation

Government-led urban renewal 2.0 returns the initiative and decision-making power of urban renewal to the residents, allowing citizens to discuss whether they should update the urban renewal system. The community can integrate 90% of the people who say “I am willing to change”, “Okay, I want to change”. If such a proportion is achieved, the city government’s mechanism will enter to help the community evaluate: each person according to the value of your rights, you What is the proportion that can be allocated and what can be allocated back? After that, everyone will have a clear idea of their own allocation, and then decide whether they still need urban renewal.
. Improve the resettlement system to make living more secure

If everyone agrees that urban renewal is still needed, the National Housing and Urban Regeneration Center will act as the implementer to help the community handle all subsequent matters. In addition, if residents have housing needs during the renewal period, the Taipei City government will also provide intermediate housing. To sum up, in the 2.0, the Taipei City government, first, respects the wishes of citizens; second, assists citizens with all professional issues; third, assists residents during the urban renewal period, so that can be achieved more smoothly.
. Renovating old apartments to protect the right to live in them

In addition, the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office also observed the necessity of “renovation and maintenance”. If the structure of the house itself is complete and does not require reconstruction, then “renovation and maintenance” is a good strategy, especially in Taipei City.
About half of the apartments in Taipei City are now four- or five-story old apartments. The most obvious shortcomings of such old apartments in terms of living functions are that they do not have elevators. If there are elderly people living in an old apartment, going up and down the stairs can be a problem for them. Therefore, the Department of Renovation is focused on renovation and maintenance. A big promotion mechanism is to assist these communities to install elevators. If you apply for a subsidy for installing elevators, the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office can subsidize 50% (2.5 million) to reduce the burden on residents. Currently, more than 60 cases have been applied for.
Welcome! Let’s work together for a better city
The average age of employees in the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office is about 36 to 38 years old, which means that the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office is a very young unit. Deputy Director Jian Sefang said: “No matter which aspect you are interested in in the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office, you can actually get what you want. I often feel that your work must have your enthusiasm in it, so that you can succeed. You have to go on. Whether it’s urban planning, earthquake, architecture, civil engineering, etc., students with this background are actually welcome to join the team of the Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office.”
summary
Deputy Secretary-General Chen Xinliang of the Taipei City Government believes that “urban regeneration” means that all development and regeneration plans should be considered from the aspects of social welfare, education, industrial employment, culture, etc. EOD, TOD, and the so-called “last mile” are all roughly concepts like this.

