Residents Angry Over Gwacheon Development Fast-Track Legislation

Government and Ruling Party Simplify Zoning Changes and Expand State-Owned Property for Rental Housing Construction
Residents Oppose, Saying "Idle Land Should Be Preserved as Citizen Parks and Passed Down as Assets to Future Generations"

On August 9th, about 3,000 residents of Gwacheon City, Gyeonggi Province, were protesting against the government's housing supply policy in front of the fountain at Gwacheon Central Park. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Residents in areas such as Gwacheon are collectively opposing a legislative bill that the government and ruling party are promoting to expand state-owned land where zoning changes can be simplified for the construction of rental housing. This is because it is seen as legislation aimed at developing Gwacheon Citizen Park, a vacant site of the Gwacheon Government Complex.

According to the National Assembly Legislative Information System on the 15th, a partial amendment to the "Special Act on Public Housing," jointly proposed by 11 members of the Democratic Party including Assemblyman Jang Kyung-tae, has recently been announced for legislative notice. The amendment mainly aims to expand the scope of state-owned property special cases applicable to rental housing construction from certain properties managed by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance or the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to administrative properties managed by all government ministries. It is a kind of fast-track legislation to easily convert national assets such as parks into rental housing to increase housing supply in the metropolitan area.

Residents of Gwacheon strongly oppose the amendment. As of the morning of the day, one week after the legislative notice, the number of citizen opinions registered on the bill reached 2,561. Most of the opinions are understood to be against the bill. The reason Gwacheon residents oppose the amendment is that they see the bill as an attempt to push through the development of Gwacheon Citizen Park.

According to the state-owned property portal e-Nara Property, Gwacheon Citizen Square in Jungang-dong 4 area of Gwacheon City is state-owned property under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. It remains as a vacant site after the government complex was relocated. Under the State Property Act, if administrative property is not managed for its intended use for a certain period, a procedure for abolishing its use must be followed. In such cases, it is usually developed in other ways or sold to the private sector. However, if the bill is amended, rental housing and other developments can be carried out immediately without administrative procedures such as abolishing the use. Previously, the government announced through the August 4th real estate measures that 4,000 public housing units would be built on this site.

A resident of Gwacheon pointed out, "There is no choice but to suspect that the bill is targeting the Gwacheon Government Complex site." A representative of the "Gwacheon Citizen Square Defense Pan-Citizen Countermeasure Committee," which is conducting a campaign against public housing construction, also claimed, "The government and ruling party seem to only think about building rental housing everywhere by utilizing state-owned property," adding, "Gwacheon Citizen Park is a precious asset that should be passed down to future generations."

As opposition to the bill grew, Assemblyman Jang recently posted an explanatory note on his blog. He explained, "The amendment is a bill for the complex development of state-owned property," and added, "It is a method of demolishing old post offices or old government buildings and supplying new government buildings and public rental housing."

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