KYOTO -- The municipal government here has agreed to consider local concerns about a modern building planned for a site in a traditional neighborhood in northeast Kyoto that sits directly on top of a fault line.
A group of residents led by Keizo Hoshino met with Kyoto city officials Monday to try to stop construction of a block of apartments on the former site of Tateishi Villa.
The villa, which consisted of wooden buildings constructed nearly 80 years ago, was torn down recently after Recruit Cosmos bought the land to build an apartment complex.
Residents were unable to stop the company from tearing down the villa. But Hoshino led a group to City Hall Monday to press safety officials to look into the danger posed by a fault line running across the northern part of the site.
"Local citizens met with Recruit Cosmos' representatives on July 19," Hoshino said. "Yet, in the information they gave us, there was no mention of the fault line that we had previously informed them of."
"The city of Yokosuka (in Kanagawa Prefecture) has an ordinance that requires residential buildings to be constructed at least 25 meters from a fault line. Kyoto, however, has no such policy," he said.
Kyoto officials acknowledged the city had surveyed the land in 1996 and discovered that a fault line ran through the property. They said they would consider Hoshino's request, but did not say whether they would formally investigate.
Recruit Cosmos had no comment, except to say the city had already granted permission to build the complex.