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Authorities in Shanghai are investigating the case of a private luxury villa that has been constructed on a public green space.

Photo shows a luxury villa built on the public green space in Shanghai. [Photo: thepaper.cn]

The questionable structure in the Sanlin community in Shanghai's Pudong district occupies a total of 3,800 square meters. It is suspected to be a high-end private club. The building is an office occupancy of Cred Holding Co.,Ltd.

According to a local resident Yu, the green space used to be very beautiful, but it was not open to the public. He says that three years ago, construction work had begun on the site, but he thought that it was some form of initial preparation before the green space was opened to the public.

The villa in question has two storeys above ground and a basement. The building has one hall and several rooms. It is decorated with sculptures and frescoes. A giant 7-tier crystal chandelier has been hung in the main hall, and a 1.3-meter long bathtub has been installed in a room on the second floor. At a corner of the basement, the garage is still under construction.

The construction workers said they have no idea about the actual purpose of the building. People living in the neighborhood said they suspected that it was a private club.

The Shanghai Expo regional development administrative committee said that the area was declared as a public green space in 2010. It also said that Cred Holding Co.,Ltd was authorized to build the municipal facility on that land. According to the plan, the building built on that green space should not have exceeded 3% of the overall area.

The administrative committee says that after the approval was given, it had no rights to supervise the actual construction project that followed.

The planning and land administrative bureau in the Pudong district said that if the building is still under construction and is not being built according to the plan approved by the local government, it is an illegal construction and that relevant law-enforcement authorities can tear it down. If the construction has been completed, but government evaluators find that it is not built according to the approved plan, the planning bureau will impose a penalty according to relevant laws and regulations.

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