The "Town Beautification Movement"
in Taiwan
--The strategy toward the 21st
Century
Construction and Planning Administration
Ministry of the Interior
Republic of China
Right now, We would like to give you some basic concepts
and principles about the“Town Beautification Movement” in Taiwan.
We believe
that the ultimate goal of land planning, for either national or urban level,
can be illustrated as: “To Provide a Dignified
Human LivingEnvironment.”By “dignity,” We refer to the mutual
dependence of humans and environment, security, comfort,attractiveness,
human-scale oriented, distinct cultural atmosphere,full of vibrancy, and
so on. This is the ideal community that we hope to achieve through
the “Town Beautification Movement”.
In September 1997,
the Ministry of the Interior, the Republic of China, drew up the program
of the “Town Beautification Movement“. This program aims to create
a new community that is rich in “culture, green, and beauty.”
To achieve this goal, the Ministry set up three strategies in terms
of “quality, taste and amusement.”By applying these three terms
to guide the developments, we hope that the crowdiness, dirtiness,
ugliness, and disorderliness of our environment will be eliminated
gradually. We hope thatthe beautification movement will become a national-wide
social movement.
The program is divided
into four parts as the following, which takes into account the coordination
between software, hardware, quality and quantity.
1. Promotion and Consensus Building
The Ministry of the Interior will hold a "Finest Scenic Towns"
contest for selecting towns with beautiful landscapes. Subsidies will be
provided to local governments for holding "Searching for the Amenities
and Cultural Roots of Townships" contests and citizen open forum and
study tours, in coordination with scheduled festivals in order to encourage
citizen's participation and build consensus .
2. Provide Consultation and
Enhance Communication
The Ministry of the Interior has established the "Town Beautification
Consultation Committee" and the "Urban Design Consultation Group"
to help local governments promote the movement." These organizations will
regularly visit towns to coordinate plans or construction works. In addition,
the Ministry has established the "Leaders Forum" with governors
of local governments and local representatives holding meetings periodically
to exchange opinions and share experiences.
3. Supervise Implementation and
Manage Sustainable Development
To promote the movement, the Ministry
of the Interior has designed subsidization programs, through which local
governments may apply for subsidies with proposed town beautification projects.
Furthermore, the Ministry has adopted action policies which aims to help
and direct local governments to revise their own beautification projects,
as well asmanagement plans for sustainable development of their own jurisdictions.
Under this scheme, the local governments --
including towns, citiesand counties, are required to implement the following
planning tasks:
(1) Draw up plans for the construction, maintenance and management of
local landscapes.
(2) Draw up urban design master plans as well as beautification guidelines.
(3) Establish planning agencies responsible for town and urban development.
(4) Establish reviewing system for urban design projects.
(5) Establish their own "Town Beautification Promotion Groups" in order
to give advises in making their own beautification plans."
(6) Implement urban renewal plan and "Transfer of Floor Area" plan for
selected areas as examples for promoting the beautification movement.
(7) Organize the "Searching for Amenities and Cultural Roots of Townships"
contests, citizen's conference and study tours, in coordination with scheduled
local festivals.
(8) Encourage private or quasi-public sectors to establish funds for
sponsoring the beautification movement.
(9) Encourage voluntary assistance or donations for the construction,maintenance
or beautification works of public facilities.
4. Subsidization and Demonstration
To help local governments to get the
job done, the Ministry intends to play an active and direct role by subsidizing
local government. The local governments are allowed to apply for subsidies
at annual basis , with proposed beautification plans for selected areas.
Through the approval process reviewing the proposed beautification projects
of the local governments and regular meetings for supervision, the Ministry
will actively direct and supervise the implementation of local beautification
programs. The Ministry' s targeted goal is that local beautification
program is a comprehensive program that includes urban design plans and
plans for waterfront and coastal development, scenic road and greenbelt,
advertisement, and street lighting.
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