Land Minister Kim Yoon-duk and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon are set to meet on the 20th to discuss Seoul's housing supply, including how to use Yongsan Park. The government wants to use at least part of the park as housing land, while Mayor Oh is holding firm on preserving the green space. Because the choice concerns a large park site in central Seoul, it is clearly not a matter to settle hastily under pressure to hit supply targets or driven by political logic. That is precisely why the Special Act on the Creation of Yongsan Park, enacted under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, bars the site from being converted or disposed of for any use other than a park.
The Yongsan Park site spans a total of 3 million square meters, an area comparable to that of Yeouido. The government estimates that using about 30% of the entire site — including building rental housing for young people within the site's Children's Garden — could supply around 30,000 homes. But it would be a mistake to view Yongsan Park as merely "empty land." It is a space that will shape the city's competitiveness decades from now. Attending a Cabinet meeting on the 18th, Mayor Oh noted that "past presidents from the Democratic Party have also held to the principle that Yongsan Park must not be carelessly damaged."
Major cities around the world are staking a great deal on securing downtown parks. Green space is a core piece of infrastructure that reduces the urban heat island effect and enhances residents' health and a city's appeal. It is therefore worrying that the government and ruling party, pressed for housing supply, are trying to tear down an asset for future generations that has been protected for 20 years. To be sure, some argue that with Seoul home prices soaring and even jeonse and monthly rents unstable, park preservation is not an absolute good. Their logic is that arranging green space alongside cultural and living facilities in harmony would maximize the site's usefulness. Yet the concern arises because a government that has until now vowed to rein in home prices through taxes and lending rules is belatedly shouting "supply at all costs" and proposing to develop a park first. In particular, with the government and ruling party already speeding up a revision to the Yongsan Park special act — as if the answer has already been decided — who would take a public debate at face value?
It does not follow the natural order of things for the government to put off revitalizing private-sector projects, a realistic option for expanding housing supply, and instead reach first for public green space. The priority should be to reasonably ease the rules on the rebuilding of aging apartment complexes and district redevelopment — which account for roughly 90% of Seoul's housing supply — so as to broaden the base for new supply. Because Yongsan Park is a weighty matter that will determine Seoul's future competitiveness, it should be settled only through social deliberation and consensus.
