Gwangju Kyungsilryeon: "Gwangju City Obsessed Only with Central Park District 1 Developer's Profit"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] Regarding the development project of Gwangju Jungang Park 1 District, where apartments are planned to be built on some sites, the project promoter submitted a revised project plan after profitability declined, which was accepted without difficulty. There are claims that Gwangju City only enriched the project promoter.

On the 14th, the Gwangju Economic Justice Practice Citizens' Coalition issued a statement saying, “The Jungang Park 1 District, a target site for the private park special project, was designated as a high-priced sale management area, making it difficult for the project promoter to proceed as originally planned. The promoter submitted a project plan that was changed four times to Gwangju City,” and added, “Gwangju City accepted this unconditionally to the extent that it can be called preferential treatment, and not only that, plans to swiftly proceed with future processes such as the Urban Planning Committee review, traffic, landscape, and architectural reviews.”

They emphasized, “Gwangju City’s full acceptance of the project promoter’s change plan shows no consideration for Gwangju citizens or securing public interest, but only pursues the interests of the project promoter, which we strongly condemn.”

It is pointed out that the excessive demands in the project change plan, such as expanding the non-park facility area and increasing the floor area ratio in Jungang Park 1 District, were accepted as is, resulting in excessive profits going to the project promoter and undermining the purpose of the private park special project.

In particular, they criticized Gwangju City’s complacent administration for allowing all demands, including excluding small units under 85㎡ with low profitability and planning to form 1,828 medium- and large-sized units, increasing the total number of households from the existing 2,370 to 2,827 by adding 457 units, and setting the sale price at a high 19 million KRW per 3.3㎡ (pyeong).

The private park special project is a method in which a private developer gains profit through development projects such as apartments on part of urban parks (over 50,000㎡) that have been neglected for a long time, while creating parks on most of the area and donating them to local governments.

The Gwangju Economic Justice Practice Citizens' Coalition urged, “Gwangju City should re-examine the Jungang Park 1 District project from scratch based on the criteria at the time of selecting the preferred negotiator, and disclose the contents securing public interest and public benefit, then present improvement measures.” They also said, “Details of negotiations with the project promoter should be disclosed, and measures to reduce citizens’ burdens should be presented together. We also demand the promotion of citizen participation plans such as citizen verification groups.”

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