Incheon City Seeks Utilization Plans for Returned Camp Market... Launches Citizen Participation Committee

Camp Market, US Military Base in Bupyeong
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City has launched a citizen participation committee to find ways to utilize Camp Market (Bupyeong US military base), part of which was returned at the end of last year.

According to the city on the 2nd, the citizen participation committee consists of a total of 34 members, including 7 ex officio members such as Park Inseo, Incheon City Deputy Mayor for Balanced Development and City Council members, as well as 27 experts in fields such as resident representatives, urban planning, urban regeneration, architecture, environment, history, and arts.

The citizen participation committee plans to hold small-scale subcommittees by field over the next two years to discuss ways to utilize the returned Camp Market site.

Since its first launch in 2012, the Camp Market citizen participation committee has operated through four terms, addressing issues such as early return of Camp Market and contaminated soil cleanup, carrying out various activities representing citizens' voices.

The city expects that the newly launched 5th term citizen participation committee, being the first committee formed after the partial return of Camp Market, will prepare a citizen-friendly blueprint for the utilization of Camp Market.

An official from Incheon City stated, "We took extra care in forming the 5th term citizen participation committee at this crucial moment that will determine the future of Camp Market," adding, "We expect the committee to play an important role over the next two years as the eyes and ears of the citizens in creating efficient utilization plans for Camp Market."

The city plans to operate various programs that allow active participation from the general public through round tables, info centers, and other means, even outside of the citizen participation committee.

Meanwhile, in December last year, Incheon City received the prior return of 210,000㎡ of land out of the total 440,000㎡ of Camp Market according to the Korea-US agreement, and the remaining 230,000㎡ will be returned later through further Korea-US consultations.

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