A draft plan to expand Taiwan's Longtan Science Park, expected to develop about 104 hectares, has passed review by the National Development Council. The draft, which public broadcaster PTS reported restarts the park's third phase after a three-year pause, will be submitted to the Executive Yuan for ratification.
What would the park host? TSMC plans to build three angstrom-era wafer fabs there, targeting processes at 1.4 nanometres and below, with the first fab aiming for completion around 2030 and total investment that could reach NT$1 trillion, PTS reported, citing supply-chain sources. Officials estimate the park could generate NT$550 billion a year in output value. Whether water and power can keep up has become a key question; factories will come only once both are sufficient, a development section chief at Taoyuan's Economic Development Department said. The official said the water utility and Taipower had already begun preparing with help from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Who stands to be displaced? Delong Elementary School and a residential community behind it, not far from TSMC's third advanced packaging and testing plant, lie inside the planned third-phase area, and pupils, parents and residents feel powerless over the expropriation, the broadcaster reported. One pupil said: "Don't tear down my school, I'll cry." One resident said the school is a 10-minute walk from her home, but once it moves to the Meihuazhuang area, where many people work in the industrial zone, she would have to drive. Another resident said that if compensation for demolition did not reach a reasonable price, "we simply cannot afford a house like the one we have now."
What worries local councillors? Local councillors fear that the third phase, to be linked with Pingzhen by a road and an MRT branch line, could keep factories in Longtan while population and spending shift elsewhere unless Longtan's urban plan is adjusted in step, leaving the area with only rising house prices and traffic pressure. One Taoyuan city councillor said: "We are more worried about whether factories will stay in Longtan while it is actually the Pingzhen area that develops."
What happens next? Passing review of the establishment plan is only a first step, PTS reported. Environmental review, land acquisition, water, power and transport provision, and the relocation of 66 households and the school are still to be settled, testing how the central government, local authorities and residents coordinate.
