It is unlikely to squeeze parks, green spaces or any other “lung of a city” into Tainan’s West Central District, a long-established regional economic hub already past the saturation point of development. At the request of local representatives, however, the city government painstakingly obtained permission from the National Property Administration (NPA) to transform, on a free-of-charge basis, a plot of NPA-owned land (designated as Public land No. 71) into the Erfukou Park. In the morning of May 9, 2013, Tainan City Mayor William Lai cut the ribbon on this brand new park, taking another step toward the “low-carbon, green and blissful city” he promised.
At the Park’s inauguration ceremony, Lai congratulated Fu’an Villagers on the completion of Erfukou Park and cited land acquisition, but not the cost, as the greatest obstacle to building this community amenity. After a series of talks with NPA over the NT$200 million-odd land plot it owns, the city government was given free use of it. In addition to the Park, a commercial area is also added opposite the Park. It is a win-win solution for both parties involved, Lai praised.
Emphasizing the difficulty of creating a park in the ever-bustling, densely built-up and expensive West Central District of Tainan, the first city in Taiwanese history, Lai expected the Erfukou Park to serve as a recreation spot and a catalyst for change in its neighboring areas. Since the city-county merger, Tainan City Government has, for instance, planned to spend 4 years renovating the wretchedly dilapidated You-ai Marketplace adjacent to Erfukou Park with a focus on its restrooms, vendor stalls, exterior and the walls of buildings nearby, preferably covered with murals as Lai suggested the district office should do, in hopes of expanding the Park’s potential.
Adding a pastoral touch to the urban setting of West Central District, the remodeled Erfukou Park meets Tainan citizens’ needs for enhanced community engagement, communal spaces, healthy pastimes, leisure activities and quality of life all at once. With a vision to ultimately maximize the benefits of a park, it even received a gold medal in the FIABCI Taiwan Real Estate Excellence Awards 2014!
Lai thanked the West Central District representatives for fervently supporting the project and Fu’an Village Head Li Yuan-rong for volunteering maintenance services for the Park, which is a 1,326-m2 space of soothing refinement in Lane 115, You’ai Street, complete with footpaths, trellises, benches, multilayered foliage and landscape lighting. To further widen the leisure options and urban amenities, Tainan Public Works Bureau also vowed to build a low-carbon, green metropolis with at least one park in each district, as the City’s ten major development plans proposed.