Originally published in: 20260707 Taipei Times
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
Mandarin version: https://www.wildatheart.org.tw/posts/2604
After days of heavy rainfall that destabilized hillsides, boulders broke loose in a landslide that crashed through the walls and roof of the Yuanshan Bowling Alley in Taipei on June 28. There was significant damage, but the venue had ceased operations on June 11, and fortunately nobody was injured.
In 1979, faced with rapid urban population growth, the Taipei City Government rezoned 25 of Yangmingshan’s protected areas within Taipei’s Shilin and Beitou districts. These areas covered a total of 465.5 hectares and were converted into residential zones under a set of regulatory guidelines for the conversion and development process established in the same year. The bowling alley struck by the landslide is in one of these formerly protected areas.
Today, Taipei’s population is shrinking and demand for new housing is falling. At the same time, climate change has brought increasingly frequent and intense rainfall, making landslides more common. As part of this year’s urban planning review, the city plans to restore 19 partially undeveloped converted residential areas to protected status.
Of the original 25 converted residential areas, four have been fully developed and will remain unchanged, while two are excluded from plans to restore protected status. One is Residential Zone 27, where the recent landslide occurred. As nearly 70 percent of the site has been developed, adequate soil and water conservation measures are in place, and major roads have been completed, the city government proposed its redesignation as a special Category 1 Residential Zone for low-density housing. The other, Residential Zone 6-6 in Shilin District, contains a long-disputed unfinished development, which the city intends to complete under its existing approval plan.
Yangmingshan sits on volcanic geology in which acidic gases corrode and weaken the rock layers, leaving the slopes unstable and prone to collapse. The area has experienced numerous such disasters, including a rockfall at Shengren Waterfall (聖人瀑布) in Neishuangxi (內雙溪) in 1993 that killed two people and injured 26; a landslide in the aftermath of Typhoon Nari in 2001 that left three dead and one missing; and the collapse of a retaining wall during Typhoon Krosa in 2007 that buried two people alive. Countless other slips have disrupted transportation, including the large-scale slope failure at the Lane 101 intersection of Jingshan Road last year, which struck passing vehicles.
Residential Zone 27 was excluded from the restoration proposal because officials believed its soil and water conservation measures provided it with sufficient protection.
Yet it only took a few days of torrential rain for a massive boulder to smash into one of its buildings.
While land engineering has some use for disaster prevention, avoiding inappropriate hillside development altogether would be a far more pragmatic approach to reducing hazard risks at their source.
In 1993, the Ministry of the Interior’s Urban Planning Commission resolved that, where development is not complete within the prescribed timeframe, protected areas rezoned for residential development should be restored to protected status. Under this ruling, the unfinished development at Residential Zone 6-6 should also be reviewed and returned to its former protected status to safeguard the lives and property of nearby residents.
We urge the public to support the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association’s online campaign to restore Yangmingshan’s converted residential areas to protected status by visiting the association’s Facebook page.