Several non-profit civic groups suggested Tuesday that the Presidential Office should open a homeland planning division to promote the integration of ministries and government agencies responsible for conservation and planning. The suggestion was brought up at a public hearing on a draft bill on homeland planning proposed by the Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior, out of concern that a 'second-rank agency' is not powerful enough to put different ministries and other agencies together for such projects. The proposal has won the support of Hsu Wen-lung, deputy director-general of the agency, who hosted the hearing, the first of three of its kind, with the other two to take place in Taichung City Sept. 4 and in Tainan City Sept. 8, respectively. Over 200 representatives of various civic groups, including the Taiwan Academy of Ecology and the Association for Taiwan Indigenous Peoples' Policies, local government officials and scholars attended the Taipei hearing to offer their opinions on the bill, which was drafted in 1993 but has never cleared the floor of the Legislative Yuan. Some participants doubted the need to impose another law regulating homeland conservation and planning, since there are already regulations on such matters, such as the Soil and Water Conservation Act and the Regional Planning Act. The draft Homeland Planning Act was brought before the legislature again after Typhoon Morakot-triggered flooding and landslides killed hundreds of people living in mountain villages in southern Taiwan in early August. The tragedy exposed the problems of overdevelopment and illegal construction on fragile hillsides. 