CHAPTER 1 General Provisions

Article 1
The Rural Regeneration Act is enacted to facilitate the rural 
sustainability, revitalization and regeneration, to improve 
production infrastructure, to conserve rural ecology and 
culture, to upgrade quality of life, and to construct a new 
rural prosperity and beauty.


Article 2
For the purposes of implementing the Act, the term “competent 
authority” denotes the Ministry of Agriculture  at the central 
government, the municipal government, and the county or city 
government at county or city levels.


Article 3
For the purposes of implementing the Act, the following terms 
are defined as follows:
1. Rural community: Rural villages and settlements with a 
   certain scale and their neighboring areas related to the 
   community integrated development; and aboriginal tribe area 
   shall be included.
2. Rural regeneration plan: a community development plan for 
   rural sustainable  development, revitalization and 
   regeneration,which is based on the community demands and 
   proposed by the local community organization or association.
3. Rural regeneration and development zone: a land area 
   designated by the municipal government and county or city 
   government through a plan prepared and submited to the 
   central competent authority for approval in order to 
   facilitate land revitalization management and meet rural 
   development demand.


Article 4
The policy implementation of rural regeneration and 
revitalization shall comply with following principles:
1. Centering on holistic construction of existing rural 
   community with a supplementary measure for individual housing 
   modification.
2. Implementing a comprehensive planning and construction, which 
   integrates the agricultural production, industrial cultural, 
   natural ecology and spatial re-use.
3. Creating incentives for collective living and constructing 
   rural communities with modern qualities of life and 
   traditional characters.


Article 5
The central competent authority shall direct the overall 
resources of rural planning and construction with reference to 
the regional policy of agricultural development and to 
coordinate all constructions and projects of rural communities 
proposed by various governmental departments.


Article 6
The central competent authority shall prepare a policy guidance 
of rural regeneration, and submit to Executive Yuan for 
approval; its amendment procedure is the same.


Article 7
In meeting the needs to implement the same rural sustainable 
development and revitalization, the central competent authority 
shall establish a rural regeneration fund of one hundred and 
fifty billion New Taiwan Dollars within budgetary period of ten 
years after the Act is enacted.
The sources of the said rural regeneration fund includes:
1.governmental input of annual budgets,
2.donations,
3.interest revenues of the rural regeneration fund, and
4.other revenues.
The expenditure of rural regeneration fund shall on following 
purposes:
1.Implementation-related expenses of the integrated 
  environmental improvement, public facility construction, 
  individual housing modification, industrial revitalization, 
  cultural conservation and revitalization, and ecological 
  preservation,
2.Implementation-related expenses of the policy guidance of 
  rural regeneration, mass plan of rural regeneration, annual 
  action plan of rural regeneration, and plan preparation and 
  reviewing of the rural regeneration and development zone,
3.Subsidization to the maintenance and modification of 
  traditional building and nieghboring areas with historical 
  cultural and environmental landscape characters,
4.Expenses for conservation, promotion, application and 
  advertisement of rural heritages, cultural assets and 
  industrial cultures, which are worth to preserve,
5.Implementation-related expenses of rural survey and analysis, 
  and improvement, planning and construction of rural production 
  infrastructures and service functions of individual rural 
  community,
6.Expenses for promoting recreational agriculture and rural 
  tourism,
7.Implementation-related expenses of manpower training and 
  cultivation for the planning, construction, leadership and 
  sustainable management of rural community, and advertisements 
  of rural regeneration and revitalization,
8.Administration and general service expenses, and
9.Other expenses related to rural regeneration and revitalization.


CHAPTER 2 Rural Planning and Regeneration

Article 8
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels shall consult with local government at township level to 
prepare a mass plan of rural regeneration for their jurisdiction 
areas, and submit to the central competent authority for 
approval.
Preparation of the above mass plan of rural regeneration shall 
hold a public reading, and a public hearing if necessary.


Article 9
Local organizations and associations within rural community 
shall discuss each other and prepare a regeneration plan of 
rural community according to residential needs of community, and 
recommend a eligible registered organization or association as 
community organization representative (thereafter referred to as 
the community organization representative) to submit the rural 
regeneration plan to the competent authorities at municipal and 
county/city levels for approval.
When there are disputes against the community organization 
representative or more than two rural regeneration plans, 
proposed within the same community area before the plan is 
approved, the competent authorities at the municipal and the 
city/county levels shall assist the community to reorganize or 
decide by vote.
The aforementioned rural regeneration plan of paragraph 1 shall 
include holistic environmental improvement of rural community, 
public facility construction, individual housing modification, 
industrial revitalization, cultural preservation and reuse, 
ecological conservation, land use zoning, vision of public 
facilities deployment and subsequent management/maintenance, 
fiscal plan,and other items proposed by the community for 
developing local distinguishing identities.


Article 10
When received the application of article 9,the competent 
authorities at the municipal and the city/county levels shall 
make announce ment in a public way that plan allows viewing and 
expressing their opinions; the public opinions shall be included 
and referred in the consideration for approval.
Regulations governing the application approval procedure, time 
and location for public reading, dispute disposing, reviewing 
procedure, implementation method, management and maintenance, 
inspection method, subsidization standard and other necessary 
items shall be formulated by the central competent authority.
The competent authorities at all levels shall grant a subsidy 
priority to the rural regeneration plans approved by the article 
9 and paragraph 2 of this article (thereafter referred to as 
approved rural regeneration plan), which are enclosed with a 
community covenant.


Article 11
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels shall formulate annual action plan of rural regeneration 
in accordance with the mass plan of rural regeneration stated by 
article 8 and the approved rural regeneration plan, and submit 
to the central competent authority for subsidy application and 
setting their implementation items and priority.
The said subsidy application shall not include the costs of land 
acquirement.


Article 12
The subsidy of competent authorities at all levels to the 
holistic environmental improvement of rural community and public 
facilities construction stated in the paragraph 3 of article 9 
may include following categories:
1.reconstruction of traditional rural roads and dilapidated 
  irrigation facilities within rural community,
2.care and other service facilities of rural community,
3.piped water and facilities for reusing water resources,
4.water/soil conservation and disaster prevention facilities,
5.traditional building, cultural heritage, ponds and ecological 
  conservation facilities,
6.Facilities of spatial reuse, image shaping, environmental 
  greening and landscape maintenance facilities,
7.sidewalk, bikeway, community road, waterway and parking lot,
8.park, green area, square, sport, cultural and landscape 
  recreation facilities,
9.sewage, waste collection, and resource recycling facilities
10.internet and information infrastructures, and
11.other facilities designated by the central competent 
   authority.


Article 13
The subsidy of competent authorities at all levels to the 
individual housing modification, stated in paragraph 3 of 
article 9, shall comply with following principle:
1.Subsidy to housing construction or modification shall be 
  limited to the legal houses.
2.Application of subsidization items shall be limited to the 
  ones facilitating the holistic landscape improvement of rural 
  community, and the housing modification for internal structure 
  shall not be included in the subsidies.
3.Subsidy priority shall be assigned to the items reducing 
  concrete facilities and implementing ecological engineering.
4.Subsidy priority shall be assigned to the houses with the 
  design ideas of green architecture and low carbon emission.
5.Subsidy priority shall be assigned to the eligible owners who 
  demolish their houses located in conservation zone and other 
  building prohibition zone stated by law, and move to live in 
  the rural community.
6.subsidy priority shall be assigned to the eligible people who 
  demolish their farmhouse dotted in rural area and move to live 
  in the rural community.
The regulations on applicant eligibility, necessary 
certificates, application procedures, subsidization standard, 
permission condition and procedure, inspection mechanism and 
other related regulation shall be formulated by the central 
competent authority.


Article 14
The competent authorities at all levels may subsidize to the 
industrial vitalization stated in the paragraph 3 of article 9, 
but the subsidy shall be limited to the agriculture-related 
sectors.


Article 15
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels may prepare a plan of regeneration and development area 
for land use zoning control and public facility allocation 
within the rural regeneration plan areas, in accordance with its 
land use feature and the regeneration plan.


Article 16
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels shall hold a public hearing as preparing the plan of rural regeneration and development area stated in the article 
15. But it is necessary to hold a legislative hearing as 
required by more than half of the whole adult residents who 
registered in the community area of rural regeneration and 
development plan. Related opinions and proceedings of 
legislative hearing shall be submitted together with book and 
map of the plan of rural regeneration and development area to 
the central competent authority for approval.
The regulations on preparation and change procedure of the plan 
of rural regeneration and development area, public hearing 
procedure, time and location of public reading, necessary 
certificates, areas, conditions, reviewing, approving and other 
related regulations shall be formulated by the central competent 
authority.


Article 17
Land uses within the rural regeneration and development areas 
shall be managed in accordance with the content of the plan of 
rural regeneration and development area.
The regulations on land use controls within the rural 
regeneration and development areas, acknowledge standard, land 
use density, architecture landscape, management and inspection 
manner, reviewing procedure and other related regulations shall 
be formulated by the central competent authority in concert with 
the concerned central authorities of building and construction 
and land administration.


Article 18
The competent authorities at all levels shall encourage, in 
accordance with the holistic development requirements of rural 
community, to extensively plant trees within the area of rural 
community, and establish green belt with ecological and 
buffering functions.


Article 19
The public lands within rural community area owned by 
governments at all levels and the lands within rural community 
area owned by Farmer Association, Fishman Association, 
Agricultural Irrigation Association and state-run enterprises 
may be reused and revitalized in accordance with the rural 
regeneration plan.


Article 20
In order to manage and maintain the public facilities, buildings 
and landscapes of the approved rural regeneration plan, the 
community organization representative may commonly promulgate a 
community covenant.


Article 21
The community covenant of article 20 shall be governed by 
following provisions and submit to the competent authorities at 
the municipal and the city/county levels for reference; its 
amendment procedure is same:
1.public facilities: it is required to get agreements of their 
  entire owners, representatives or managers.
2.buildings: it is required to get entire agreements of owners 
  related to the buildings.
3.landscape: it is required to get agreements of its entire 
  owners related to the landscape.
The successor of building owners aforementioned in the preceding 
paragraph shall request to read or photocopy the community 
covenant before accepting the succession, and act in accordance 
with the rights and obligations written in the community 
covenant after accepting the succession.
The preparation and change procedure of community covenant, 
exemplar document, time and location of public reading, resolution manner of convention, dispute disposing, procedure of 
submitting to the competent authorities at the municipal and the 
city/county levels for reference, and other related regulations 
shall be further formulated by the central competent authority.


Article 22
Once the community covenant is granted by the competent 
authorities at the municipal and the city/county levels for 
future reference, to the violators of community covenant, the 
community organization representative shall, in advance, advise 
the violators to correct their wrong doing against the community 
covenant. If the wrong doing involve other related law 
provisions, the community organization representative may 
request the related authorities to dispose with their laws.


Article 23
For implementing the construction of rural community, the 
central competent authority shall establish inspection and 
guidance institution, and may reward to the individuals, 
organizations or institutes with outstanding performance in 
implementing the construction of rural community.
The regulations on the reward shall be formulated by the central 
competent authority.


Article 24
The central competent authority shall carry out a general survey 
and analysis to current rural development, and establish 
evaluation indicators for the rural quality of life.
The central competent authority may, according to the survey and 
analysis of preceding paragraph, enforce the improvement, 
planning and construction of rural production infrastructures 
and living functions of individual rural community.


CHAPTER 3 Rural Culture and Characters

Article 25
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels may subsidize to maintenance or modification costs of 
buildings with historic cultural value and buildings and their 
space with distinguish features merging with neighboring 
environment and landscape.


Article 26
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels shall carry out a survey on the rural heritage, cultural 
asset and industrial culture of rural communities located within 
their jurisdiction area, and conserve, promote, utilize and 
advertise them in a proper manner.


Article 27
The competent authorities at all levels shall develop recreation 
agriculture and rural tourism with reference to agricultural 
features, landscape resources, rural development features and 
ecological and culture assets.


Article 28
The competent authorities at all levels shall produce 
advertising materials of rural community construction, cultural 
asset, industrial culture and distinguishing landscape and 
ecology for the public and schools at all levels, and 
extensively subsidize all relevant advertising and educational 
activities.


Article 29
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels may prepare a reuse plan of the unused school spaces 
located within rural community, and promote urban/rural exchange 
and rural experience.


Article 30
The competent authorities at all levels shall accelerate the 
manpower training and cultivation of rural planning, 
construction, leader and sustainable management, and the policy 
promotion for the rural vitalization and regeneration.
The central competent authority shall prepare annual manpower 
training plan of rural regeneration, and request the competent 
authorities at the municipal and the city/county levels to carry 
out the plan.
In implementing the annual empowerment and training plan of 
preceding paragraph 1, the competent authorities at all levels 
shall, with reference to individual community features and 
needs, create the training courses of various degrees for rural 
community separately, and carry out serially.
Local organization and institute of rural community shall 
complete the training courses of manpower training plan, before 
eligible to prepare the rural regeneration plan of article 9.


Article 31
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels shall, in accordance with the promotion and enforcement 
of rural regeneration plan, assist the local organization to 
operate, and establish reward and performance evaluation system.


CHAPTER 4 Other Provisions

Article 32
The provisions of article 9 to article14 and article 18 to 22 
may, with agreement of related municipal government or 
county/city governments, apply to rural settlements located 
within the areas of city plan and national park as long as the 
rural regeneration is considered needed by the consultation 
result of the central competent authority with other competent 
authorities concerned. Required expenditure on the approved 
rural regeneration may be sponsored by the rural regeneration 
fund.


Article 33
In the area of rural regeneration plan located in city plan or 
national park, land use remains controlled under the Urban Plan 
Act and National Park Act.


Article 34
The competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels may directly change the annual action plan of rural 
regeneration when natural disaster occurs and causes extensive 
damages to rural communities, which should not be subject to the 
provision stated in the paragraph 1 of article 11 and submitted 
to the central competent authority for reference.


Article 35
To the dilapidated area within rural community extensively 
retarding community landscape, sanitation and land use, the 
competent authorities at the municipal and the city/county 
levels may directly carry out environmental greening and 
building maintenance or modification when the residential 
address and whereabouts of landowner or building-owner is 
unknown, and there is no disputation raised during 3-month 
period of declaration bulletined by the competent authorities at 
the municipal and the city/county levels.


Article 36
In order to protect rural quality of life and production safety, 
the hazardous waste dumping in agricultural production area and 
land-use behavior damaging to rural developments shall be 
prohibited in pursuance with relevant laws of land use 
management and environmental protection.


Article 37
The implementation rules of this Act shall be established by the 
central competent authority.


Article 38
This Act shall come into effect as of the date of promulgation.