[Exclusive] Mayor Oh Se-hoon Significantly Reduces Park Won-soon’s ‘Urban Regeneration’ Functions

Housing Construction Headquarters Expanded to 'Housing Policy Office.' Regional Development Headquarters and Some Functions of Urban Regeneration Office Merged into Expanded 'Balanced Development Headquarters'... Urban Regeneration Office Greatly Reduced... Organizational Restructuring to Be Implemented Through May Seoul City Council Special Session Followed by Personnel Changes

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Urban regeneration projects in Seoul will be significantly reduced going forward. This comes as Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s first organizational restructuring plan since taking office has been revealed. During the election campaign, Mayor Oh emphasized the need to expand housing supply through reconstruction and redevelopment to address Seoul’s real estate issues.

According to Seoul city officials on the 28th, Mayor Oh is expected to strengthen housing construction functions by changing the Housing Construction Headquarters (Grade 1 Head) to the ‘Housing Policy Office.’

On the other hand, the Urban Regeneration Office will be drastically downsized from nine departments?including the Regeneration Policy Division Chief, Public Regeneration Division Chief, Urban Activation Division Chief, Historic Downtown Regeneration Division Chief, Residential Regeneration Division Chief, Residential Environment Division Chief, Hanok Architectural Assets Division Chief, and the Gwanghwamun Plaza Promotion Team Chief (Grade 3) with the Gwanghwamun Plaza Planning Team Leader and Gwanghwamun Plaza Project Team Leader?under the existing Regeneration Policy Planning Officer (Grade 3) to just one department.

This is interpreted as a judgment that housing supply within Seoul decreased due to the focus on urban regeneration projects during Mayor Park Won-soon’s administration.

Additionally, some parts of the Regional Development Headquarters and the Urban Regeneration Office will be merged and expanded into the ‘Balanced Development Headquarters,’ which is expected to strengthen activities aimed at regional balance development between Gangnam and Gangbuk.

Seoul city has reportedly prepared this restructuring plan and recently consulted with the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

Initially, Seoul city proposed a plan to significantly downsize the Urban Regeneration Office and consulted with the city council, but since the council opposed this, a compromise was reached with the current plan.

A senior official from the Seoul Metropolitan Council stated, “It should be understood that the urban regeneration projects carried out during Mayor Park Won-soon’s administration are not being completely abandoned but will continue.”

Seoul city plans to submit this organizational restructuring plan to the city council soon, have it processed at the May extraordinary session, and then proceed with subsequent personnel appointments.

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