Taitung Miramar Resort: a NT$1B resort barred from opening after 10 lost court cases

Taitung Miramar Resort was a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) seaside resort planned on Shanyuan Beach, also known as Fudafudak, in Beinan, Taitung County, Taiwan. The beach was a popular public recreation area for swimming and surfing and held cultural significance for the local indigenous Amis people. Central government approved the BOT project in 2003, the contract was signed in December 2004, and construction began on March 28, 2005. The developer, Miramar Resort Taitung Ltd., was majority-owned by Huang Chun-fa through Durban Development Company, part of the Miramar Group.

To bypass the EIA requirement — mandatory for developments over one hectare — the county government split the land into a 0.9997-hectare parcel and approved three construction stages, each under the threshold. When challenged, the government stacked EIA panels with its own officials who approved the project. Courts invalidated every EIA for conflict of interest: officials voted on their own project. The county lost ten consecutive cases across the administrative courts and the Supreme Court.

In 2016 the Supreme Court dismissed the final appeal, permanently barring the resort from opening. The buildings stand unused on the beach. In 2020 an arbitration tribunal ordered the county to pay NT$629 million (US$21.75M) in compensation to Miramar and take ownership of the structures. The developer spent over NT$1 billion on construction. The county proposed converting it into a public park or conference hall, but no demolition or environmental restoration has been done. The case remains a landmark in Taiwan for environmental law, land rights and BOT governance.