Drive-Thru Threatening Pedestrians... Sidewalk Usage Fees Remain 'Unknown'

Among Seoul's Autonomous Districts, Only Gwanak-gu Discloses Occupancy Fees
"Personal Information and Trade Secrets" Lead to Non-Disclosure for 12 Locations
Criticism of Closed Administration: "Non-Disclosure of Public Property Is Wrong"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-gi] Although 'drive-thru' stores where customers order food from their cars are scattered throughout the city, there are considerable complaints that this sales method threatens pedestrian safety. This is because, due to the facility structure, vehicles must cross pedestrian roads. For this reason, stores pay 'road occupancy fees' to local governments. It can be seen as a kind of compensation for threatening pedestrian safety. However, local governments do not disclose related information, which is considered problematic.

On the 14th, Asia Economy requested information disclosure regarding road occupancy by each of the 25 autonomous districts in Seoul through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Information Disclosure Portal. Among the 13 districts that responded, only Gwanak-gu disclosed the scale of road occupancy and occupancy fees for drive-thru stores. For example, the Starbucks Nakseongdae store in Gwanak-gu rents 41.6㎡ of road space and pays an annual fee of 6.16 million KRW excluding VAT. The Starbucks Sillim store pays 6.012 million KRW annually for occupying 53㎡ of road space.

However, Nowon-gu and Seocho-gu decided to keep all information related to drive-thru stores confidential. Ten districts?Seongbuk-gu, Gangbuk-gu, Dobong-gu, Seodaemun-gu, Yangcheon-gu, Gangseo-gu, Dongjak-gu, Gangdong-gu, Gangnam-gu, and Songpa-gu?partially disclosed information excluding the annual road occupancy fees.

Most local governments that decided on non-disclosure cited 'Article 9 of the Information Disclosure Act,' referring to personal information or trade secrets. Dongdaemun-gu responded that, according to the Local Tax Basic Act regarding the scope of taxation data and confidentiality obligations, the data is treated as taxation data and cannot be provided.

However, the decision by local governments to withhold road occupancy information has been criticized as closed administration. According to Article 69 of the Enforcement Decree of the Road Act, when roads are occupied for business purposes such as entering and exiting drive-thru stores, a fee of 2% of the official land price per square meter must be charged by law. This is compensation for allowing the use of public goods used by citizens for business purposes. The Information Disclosure Center for a Transparent Society stated, "Strictly speaking, this is not personal information, and the decision to withhold information about public property is a wrong judgment."

In the case of food vending machines or ATMs, an annual occupancy fee of 5% of the official land price is charged. However, drive-thru stores apply a rate less than half of this, leading to criticism that it is unfair.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.