A public briefing on the development of Yeomchang Neighborhood Park in Seoul's Gangseo District, the only new public housing site in the capital named in the government's Aug. 13 fast-track housing supply plan, collapsed amid opposition from local residents. Residents demanded that the district office proceed with the park as originally promised, saying the government announced the housing plan without adequate consultation. With plans to supply housing within the main grounds of Yongsan Park still deadlocked over objections from the Seoul city government and Yongsan District, the Yeomchang project now also appears certain to face delays because of resident opposition.
According to Gangseo District and other sources on the 13th, a briefing session on the development of the damaged site in Yeomchang-dong, scheduled for the 11th at the gymnasium of Yeomkyung Middle School in the district, was called off after some 200 residents protested. Residents blocked entry to the venue, demanding the project be scrapped and an apology issued. Gangseo District Mayor Jin Kyo-hoon and Rep. Han Jeoung-ae of the Democratic Party of Korea, who represents the district, visited the site but were unable to attend after the briefing was canceled.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had designated Yeomchang Neighborhood Park in Gangseo District as a new public housing zone of about 1,000 units in its fast-track housing supply plan announced on the 13th of last month. It was the only new public housing zone in Seoul included in the plan. The government said it would build public housing on land inside the park that has been left damaged and neglected for years, with construction targeted to begin in 2029. At the briefing, Gangseo District had planned to explain why the site had been left idle for about 20 years, along with plans for rental housing supply, traffic measures and the expansion of infrastructure and social overhead capital facilities in Yeomchang-dong.
The event could not proceed, however, as residents blocked entry to the venue while demanding the plan be withdrawn. Residents say they waited years for the park to be built, only for the government to announce a housing supply plan without sufficient consultation. They argue in particular that the site is parkland that should be restored, not land for housing development, and are calling for the housing plan to be scrapped.
According to the Yeomchang residential environment emergency committee, Yeomchang Neighborhood Park was designated as a neighborhood park under urban planning rules in 1977. A private park development was approved in 1990 and facilities including a golf driving range operated there, but after the permit was revoked in 2006 and the site was forcibly closed in 2009, the structures were never demolished or restored and the land has been left neglected.
Mayor Jin apologized for failing to gather sufficient resident input during the process of designating the public housing zone. He also said he would withdraw the public housing development plan if the Seoul city government, which manages the site, clearly commits to a plan and timeline for restoring the damaged land in Yeomchang Neighborhood Park. Still, he maintained that the long-idle site needs to be developed, saying that "redevelopment and rebuilding are essential to securing the infrastructure that Yeomchang-dong lacks."
In announcing the Aug. 13 measures, the government said it would apply a "shortest-path construction model" that cuts the period from housing zone designation to groundbreaking to 33 months. With Yeomchang Neighborhood Park running into resident opposition at the very first stage of gathering public input, however, delays to the project now appear unavoidable.
