Gokseong-gun Officially Advances New Government Building Construction with Goal of Completion in 2023

Idea Contest for New Government Building Construction from March to May

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Chunsu] Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do announced on the 17th that it will publicly collect ideas from residents regarding the construction of a new government office building.

Since announcing in November last year the plan to build a new office building behind the current government building, the county has been accelerating the project by proceeding with administrative procedures such as approval of the public property management plan and local financial investment review. In February, as part of the administrative procedures for the building construction, the Gokseong County Council approved the public property management plan. The investment review has since been requested to Jeollanam-do Province and is expected to be approved by March.

Accordingly, ahead of the full-scale project launch, Gokseong-gun plans to hold the “County Office Building Construction Resident Talk Talk Idea Contest” for 60 days starting in March. The aim is to incorporate residents’ proposals and ideas into the design of the new office building to create a user-centered facility. Any Gokseong resident interested in the construction of the office building can participate.

To participate, applicants can download the application form from the Gokseong-gun website and submit it via email, mail, or in person (to the Property Management Team of the Finance Department) within the designated period. The contest specifically seeks ideas on the spatial arrangement and utilization plan of the new building, as well as design directions that could become a landmark for the county, but any opinions related to the office building construction are welcome. Submitted ideas will undergo final review by the relevant departments and a judging committee to determine adoption. Selected proposers will receive prizes in Gokseong Simcheong gift certificates or mobile gift certificates: one grand prize of 1 million KRW, one excellence prize of 500,000 KRW, and two encouragement prizes of 300,000 KRW each.

A county official stated, “We are collecting valuable opinions filled with residents’ affection and interest to build the new office building together with the community.” He added, “We will do our best to actively reflect residents’ opinions so that the new building can become a new landmark of Gokseong-gun,” urging residents’ interest and participation.

The current Gokseong-gun government building, completed in 1977, has been in use for 44 years and is experiencing various problems. In addition to safety issues caused by aging, the limited office space has led to the operation of an annex, causing frequent confusion among visitors searching for the annex. There are also inconveniences in civil service consultations due to a lack of resident convenience facilities.

Although temporary fixes have been applied over time, they have not provided fundamental solutions and the associated costs continue to increase. Residents also agree on the need for a new building. According to a resident survey with 1,419 participants, 90.6% supported the construction of a new office building, indicating that the majority of residents view the project positively. Regarding the preferred location, the option to build behind the current building and then demolish the existing one was the most favored at 53.3%.

Experts also analyzed the site based on five evaluation criteria (accessibility, ease of development, future growth potential, economic feasibility, and surrounding environment) and concluded that maintaining the current location is desirable. In particular, building behind the current site can save approximately 4.7 billion KRW in sunk costs such as temporary office rental fees, communication relocation expenses, and moving costs that would be incurred if the new building were constructed after demolishing the existing one.

The construction of the new office building requires a significant budget. Goheung-gun in Jeollanam-do, which recently built a new office building, spent 47.2 billion KRW (in 2018), and the ongoing Haenam-gun office building project is expected to require a budget of 68.7 billion KRW.

The Gokseong-gun new office building will cover a total area of 12,383㎡ including the county office, council building, and parking lot, with one basement floor and five above-ground floors. The total cost is expected to be 35.3 billion KRW, with construction planned to start in 2021 and be completed by 2023.

To reduce the burden of allocating the project budget in a short period, the county enacted the “Ordinance on the Establishment and Operation of the County Office Building Construction Fund” in 2018. Since then, it has steadily accumulated over 5 billion KRW annually, raising 20 billion KRW as of March 2020. The county plans to accumulate an additional 15 billion KRW by 2022 to be used for land acquisition, design, and construction costs related to the new office building project.

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