ELEVEN Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress deputies had a questioning session with the city’s urban planning, land and resources commission Tuesday over an ecologically protected area that was set aside for commercial development, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    The 140,000 square meters of land at the foot of Tanglang Mountain in Nanshan District was inside an ecological protection boundary before June last year when the commission announced that the Shenzhen Metro Co. Ltd. would develop commercial estates there. To offset the loss of natural land, other land in Shenzhen Bay Park was reclassified as protected, according to previous media reports.

    Zheng Xueding, the leading initiator of the questioning session, said the city’s ecologically protected territory has been damaged, especially in the eastern coastal areas where mountaintops are occupied by buildings. Zheng asked commission officials if the replacement of the natural land violated environmental rules.

    An official said the replacement was in accordance with national regulations. The official added that the construction of housing and schools above the Metro line are methods of fundraising and in accordance with instructions from the National Development and Reform Commission.

    Zheng countered that there are other ways for the Metro contractor to raise money, adding he doubted other construction projects would manipulate an ecological protection boundary.

    Another deputy, Zhao Guangqun, said the government should only allow projects that benefit the general public inside the boundary.

    Two other deputies, Li Jizhao and Zhou Mingming, said the forest near Tanglang Mountain is more valuable ecologically than the artificial park being used to offset the loss of natural land.

    Li Shuisheng, the spokesperson of the city’s habitat environment commission, said the woodland was a man-made forest being planted near a quarry.

    Li said the commission will build a database to measure the city’s natural resources in order to make proper adjustments of the ecological protection boundaries.

    Deputy Wu Bin said the city’s urban planning, land and resources commission has adjusted the boundary over 500 times over the past seven years, adding that he wondered if the adjustments were made based on public benefit or to make room for property development.

    The commission’s spokesperson said there were 450 adjustments in recent years to facilitate the construction of major transport or municipal communal facilities. The spokesperson added that four residential estates in the Liantangwei area were built on land that was set aside for commercial use before the ecological protection lines were drawn.

    Deputy Liu Bang said questioning sessions should be held every year based on topics highlighted by deputies. (Zhang Yang)