Land Consolidation Engineering Bureau, Ministry of the Interior, R.O.CLand Consolidation Engineering Bureau, Ministry of the Interior, R.O.C

According to Point 8 of the Key Points of Land Rezoning in Rural Communities, the following lands shall be avoided from being included in the rezoned area due to the need of the overall development of the region or the increase of public facilities: (1) Lands used for cultural preservation. (2) Environmentally sensitive lands and lands used by purpose-specific businesses. (3) Lands currently used by public utilities or lands of which the development has been applied for by other units for purpose-specific businesses. (4) Lands that have been developed by the government or have major constructions.

According to the "Rural Land Rezoning Project Cost Sharing Principles,” 1% of the rural community rezoning project cost shall be borne by the land owner, and the rest shall be borne by the central and local governments in accordance with the "Measures Governing Central Government Subsidies to Municipalities and Counties (Cities) Governments." Meanwhile, according to the provisions of Point 6 of the “Provisions on Subsidies from the Land Consolidation Engineering Bureau under the Ministry of the Interior for the Municipalities and County (City) Governments to Handle Rural Community Land Rezoning,” the subsidies for each hectare of hillsides and flatlands are approximately NT$ 12.5 million and $ 11.5 million respectively.

According to Article 19 of the Rural Community Land Readjustment Act, the metropolitan or the county / city competent authority should announce publicly the result of redistribution at township / city office organization in the readjustment area after finishing land redistribution, and send the notices in writing to landowners and other land rights owners. The course of the public announcement in the preceding paragraph is thirty days.

The provisions of the 'Standards for Determining Specific Items and Scope of Environmental Impact Assessments for Development Activities', promulgated by the Executive Yuan's Environmental Protection Administration, are used to determine whether or not to carry out environmental impact assessments.

The following lists the principles for selecting the land consolidation regions according to Article 3 that details the implementation of land consolidation in rural communities:

1. Obvious geological or topographic boundaries.
2. Community population pressure and demand for construction land.
3. Land use status.
4. Demands for overall community development or additional public facilities.
5. Desires of the land owners.
6. Budget.
7. Other specific needs.

1. According to Article 3 of the Regulations for Land Consolidation in Rural Communities, rural communities would refer to villages, agricultural or aborigine settlements and non-urban regions as defined by the Regional Planning Act.
2. Additionally, according to Article 2-1 of the implementation details of the Regulations for Land Consolidation in Rural Communities, agricultural and aborigine settlements would refer to the following - regions where total area is above 0.5 hectares, where annual population for the past 5 years had exceeded 15 households and 50 individuals. However, according to Subparagraph 4 of Paragraph 1 of Article 5 in the Regulations for Land Consolidation in Rural Communities, when implementing disaster zone reconstruction, areas that exceed 0.3333 hectares with populations exceeding 10 households and 33 individuals shall be considered as a:
(1) Agricultural settlement: Areas that lie outside non-urban rural districts and are not aborigine reserves, where boundaries of Class A and C construction land do not exceed 20 meters.
(2) Aborigine settlement: Aborigine reserves that lie outside non-urban rural districts where boundaries of Class A and C construction land do not exceed 25 meters.

Community roads, drainage pipes and sewage treatment shall be vastly improved. Plazas, parking lots, parks and public facilities shall be added to improve life quality in the community. Community streets widths, lengths and building sizes and architecture shall be improved to meet building qualifications. All community land owners shall enjoy clarified property rights, cadastral surveys, intact land blocks with accessibility to roads in order to improve land usability and value. Additionally, land consolidation in rural communities may integrate the Rural Reconstruction Project to provide synergistic effects and achieve goals of rural reconstruction.

According to Article 11 ofRural Community Land Readjustment Act:
The government should pay the expenses of administrative affairs and planning design for Rural Community Land Readjustment. The costs on the construction works are shared at the proportion formulated by the Executive Yuan by the government and the landowners.
The land for road, ditch, underground communication and electricity, sewer, square, activity center, green land and other land reserved for the public infrastructure satisfying modern life function should be substituted by the land for road, ditch, river and the unregistered land originally owned by the government. If the land is still not enough, plus the fee for demolishing and loan interest, then the lack land should be substituted by the proportion of the land in readjustment area in accordance with the benefit taken by the landowners.
According to theGuidelines forConstruction Fee Allocation forRural Community Land Readjustment,
the landowner shall bear 1% of the construction costs incurred forRural Community Land Readjustment.

Regions undergoing land consolidation in rural communities would need to implement preliminary planning, obtain non-urban land development permits, engineering designs, reconstruction, measurements and cadastral surveys in procedural order. The entire consolidation process would require between 4 to 5 years.

According to the regulations stipulated in Article 5 of Site Selection for Rural Community Land Readjustment, existing communities in the readjusted area that do not need to undergo general eadjustments or cadastral changes as well as those that would not benefit from consolidation while satisfying any of the following would not be targeted for Rural Community Land Readjustment projects:

Rural communities that only contain several buildings with cadastral registration with a majority of land in the periphery devoted for farming.
Where the original land for building use in the community has sound cadastral surveys, well-built housing, and clear property rights such that consolidation would provide little benefit.