BUSAN — A Busan City Council member said the city pushed ahead with plans to build an international-standard squash court at Dongnae Historic Park without conducting even a basic feasibility review, after the project was halted because construction costs surged and there was not enough time to finish it before the National Sports Festival.
Kim Dong-ha of the People Power Party, who represents Dongnae District 1 on the council's construction and transportation committee, raised the administrative failures behind the project's collapse during a five-minute floor address at the 339th extraordinary session on the 28th. He called on the city to determine who was responsible and to draw up measures to restore community sports facilities.
Busan began the project in 2023 to demolish an artificial climbing wall inside Dongnae Historic Park and build an international-standard squash court in time for the 106th National Sports Festival. The city carried out the related procedures, including revising the park development plan and completing reviews of public property, cultural heritage consultations, public architecture screening and detailed design work.
During the detailed design phase, however, construction costs rose to 8.6 billion won from an initial 5.6 billion won, an increase of about 3 billion won. The city also concluded that completion before the National Sports Festival would not be possible, and the project was ultimately halted.
"Does it make any sense that they only learned about the core issues of the project — the cost increase, the insufficient construction period, the need to demolish the parking lot — after the detailed design was finished?" Kim said. "If the project went ahead without even a basic feasibility review, that is clearly an administrative failure."
He also pointed to the city's delay in reaching a decision even after Dongnae District repeatedly flagged problems with the construction timeline and funding shortfall and asked for a prompt ruling. According to Kim, the suspension was announced only after the artificial climbing wall had already been torn down, and no formal written notice arrived in time after the verbal notification, leaving Dongnae District to request official notice from the city so it could settle the project's accounts.
Kim demanded that the city disclose the entire process from the drafting of the project plan to the decision to halt it, identify who was responsible for the inadequate preliminary review and prepare measures to prevent a recurrence. He also urged the city to come up with substantive recovery plans, including specific replacement facilities and programs, for Dongnae residents who lost access to community sports facilities when the climbing wall was demolished.
"The city drew up the plan and the city decided on the demolition, but after the project failed, no one took responsibility," Kim said. "Administration must be judged by results. Administration that has plans but no accountability must not be repeated."
"The city must clearly explain the cause of and responsibility for this failure and quickly prepare a substantive alternative plan to fill the gap in community sports for Dongnae residents," he added.
