Gyeonggi-do "Approval of Housing Construction Project Plan in Uijeongbu Howon-dong Deemed Illegal"

Gyeonggi Provincial Government Gwanggyo New Office Building

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province reported that there were illegal processing issues regarding the approval of the housing construction project plan in Howon-dong, Uijeongbu City, and demanded disciplinary action against the related public officials.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 27th that from November 17 to 25 last year, it conducted an on-site audit of the approval of the housing construction project plan (1,762 households) for the area around 281-21 Howon-dong, requested by residents of Uijeongbu City, and confirmed that there were illegal processing issues during the approval process. It requested disciplinary and admonitory actions against three related public officials in Uijeongbu City.

The resident audit request is based on Article 21 of the Local Autonomy Act (Resident Audit Request), a system where local residents can request an audit to a higher authority if the affairs under the jurisdiction of the local government head violate laws or significantly harm public interest. Residents aged 18 or older can request an audit by collecting joint signatures exceeding the number stipulated by the local government ordinance: 300 for cities/provinces, 200 for large cities with populations over 500,000, and 150 for other cities, counties, and autonomous districts. Upon receiving a resident audit request, the higher authority can decide whether to conduct the audit through an audit request review committee.

Earlier, 420 residents of Uijeongbu City requested a resident audit to Gyeonggi Province in August last year, claiming that the approval process for the housing construction project plan in the area around 281-21 Howon-dong was inappropriate. In response, the province decided to conduct the resident audit in October last year.

According to the province, Uijeongbu City approved the project plan despite the developer not reflecting the final consultation contents of the small-scale environmental impact assessment from the Hangang River Basin Environmental Office.

Additionally, according to the 'Uijeongbu City Office Delegation Processing Rules,' approval of housing construction project plans for 300 or more households should be drafted and processed by a team leader. However, the relevant plan was drafted by a clerk, violating the delegation processing rules.

The province demanded that the mayor of Uijeongbu discipline and admonish the public officials who illegally processed the approval of the housing construction project plan.

Furthermore, it instructed that the approval work for housing construction project plans be thoroughly implemented to ensure that the consultation contents of the small-scale environmental impact assessment are reflected in the project plan.

Besides this, the province also directed the preparation of measures to reflect the consultation contents of the small-scale environmental impact assessment in the project plan through changes to the housing construction project plan.

The province added that although the resident audit request included issues such as lack of land use rights, improper calculation of floor area ratio, and inappropriate plans for neighborhood living facilities, no illegal or improper matters were found during the audit, and the case was closed.

Choi Eun-soon, the provincial auditor, emphasized, "This audit is meaningful in that residents directly requested an audit of the local government's housing construction project plan and detected illegal matters," and added, "We will conduct more thorough audits to check for illegalities during comprehensive audits of cities/counties and during the processing of permits by cities/counties."

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