Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Yun-duk and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon are set to hold a second meeting on the 26th to discuss housing supply at Yongsan Park, with attention focused on whether the two sides can narrow their differences as Oh again puts forward the Tancheon Water Reclamation Center as an alternative site. Oh also opposes transferring permit authority for redevelopment and rebuilding projects of 500 units or fewer to Seoul's district offices, a plan pushed by the government and the ruling party, citing the risk of haphazard development and disparities among districts. The talks are expected to be difficult.
Oh told reporters on the 25th, after attending the Korea Future Innovation Forum at the National Assembly Members' Office Building, that "Seoul's urban planning must take into account even wider-area side effects in a multidimensional way." He criticized the plan to transfer permit authority for redevelopment projects of 500 units or fewer to district offices as "highly dangerous desk-bound administration."
Oh stressed that district office heads already handle seven stages, including union establishment, project implementation approval and construction start, saying claims that the city government is holding up projects are inaccurate. "After I raised this point at a Cabinet meeting, the president also told the prime minister to discuss it thoroughly with the Seoul mayor, but watching the prime minister bypass the Seoul mayor, gather district office heads and take their proposals on the spot to flesh out the plan, I thought this is truly a government with problems," he said. He then asked, "Seoul is a single living zone, so if districts are made to compete with one another, how will disparities among districts be overcome?"
Authority to designate redevelopment zones has rested with mayors of special and metropolitan cities and provincial governors since the Urban Redevelopment Act took effect in 1996. Even after the Urban and Residential Environment Improvement Act combined the redevelopment and rebuilding systems in 2003, the Seoul mayor has designated zones following review by the city's Urban Planning Committee. That amounts to 30 years of authority exercised at the metropolitan level for redevelopment, and 23 years under the current integrated legal framework.
According to the Seoul city government, only 31 of 193 project sites with 500 units or fewer, or 16%, are at the zone designation stage. The rest have already entered stages handled by district office heads, leading the city to conclude that transferring authority would do little to speed up supply. Officials instead point to side effects such as differing standards across districts or the splitting of project zones to stay under the 500-unit threshold.
Oh will meet Kim again on the 26th to discuss housing supply measures. At their meeting on the 20th, Oh opposed housing supply at Yongsan Park and mentioned alternative sites including Camp Kim and the Armed Forces Financial Management Corps. He then proposed the Tancheon Water Reclamation Center as an alternative site when he met Kim Young-bae, chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul chapter, on the 22nd.
The city government wants to supply 10,000 to 13,000 homes on the 393,000-square-meter Tancheon site by combining housing for young adults with advanced industry and research and development functions, instead of developing part of Yongsan Park. The Tancheon site is more than 90,000 square meters larger than Yongsan Children's Garden and is close to Daecheong and Suseo subway stations. "It has greater capacity than Yongsan Park and a better residential environment, including transportation. This is not a hastily assembled alternative," Oh said. "I hope the approach to Yongsan Park is withdrawn and that this alternative is discussed in depth. If the government helps, it can be built quickly."
