[Inside Chodong] The "Smooth Plan" Faces "Painful Reality" on the Ground

"It’s not a smooth plan, but a painful plan."

On the 19th of last month, after the announcement of the delay in selecting the contractor for the Yeouido Hanyang Apartment complex, a resident (owner) I met in the complex said this. Everyone presumed to be related to the Reconstruction Maintenance Project Steering Committee and the project executor, KB Real Estate Trust, said something similar.

I left the complex and moved to a nearby building. This place is where the construction companies (Hyundai Engineering & Construction, POSCO E&C) that bid for the Yeouido Hanyang Apartment construction project set up their camps (site offices). After wandering around for about 10 minutes, I met a familiar construction company official. As soon as we met, he sighed and said the project progress was too ambiguous, also calling it a "painful plan."

The term "painful plan," used sarcastically instead of "smooth plan," was not only heard here. It also came up in Apgujeong 3 District in Gangnam-gu, where there was conflict with Seoul City during the design company selection process.

The reason why the term "painful plan" emerged at these project sites is simpler than expected. It’s about whether the smooth plan is a private project or a public project. More specifically, it concerns who holds what extent of authority over the project entity.

Originally, the smooth plan was one of the maintenance project measures created by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon with the goal of "activating housing supply." Fundamentally, it is a maintenance project (reconstruction and redevelopment) led by the private sector, with the core idea of accelerating the process through public support. In fact, at the time of the smooth plan contest in September 2021, it was announced that the project execution, architectural planning (designer selection), and contractor selection would be resident-led. It was also explained that the maintenance plan establishment would be carried out by residents and autonomous districts, while Seoul City would provide planning guidelines and manage project procedures.

However, as the project proceeded, the ambiguous division of procedural project entities caused confusion on site. Seoul City pointed out and intervened in procedural illegalities regarding contractor selection (Yeouido Hanyang Apartment) and design company selection (Apgujeong 3 District), which had been classified as resident-led.

In response, residents are protesting, saying that Seoul City is intervening in resident-led procedures contrary to the initial announcement. On the other hand, Seoul City argues that it took legitimate measures as it provides planning guidelines and manages project procedures. They say they cannot overlook illegalities such as proceeding with bid announcements without following the maintenance plan details.

Ultimately, the problem lies in the fact that the project was promoted without clear guidelines being established. The core is for the public sector to support from the early stages of the project and integrate and proceed with the review process to enable rapid groundbreaking, but a difference in stance arose between the public sector and the project executors regarding this public involvement. If detailed implementation plans such as "project promotion is not allowed if there are acts deviating from the maintenance plan" had been created from the start, the problem could have been minimized.

As a result, the smooth plan promotion complexes experienced delays in project progress, participating project executors suffered financial losses, and Seoul City’s credibility regarding the smooth plan was damaged.

Nevertheless, Seoul City is busy praising itself, claiming that the smooth plan is progressing smoothly. As of the end of September, it is promoting that 52 districts (35 redevelopment, 17 reconstruction), accounting for 58% of the 89 smooth plan target districts (65 redevelopment, 24 reconstruction), have completed planning. Numerically, the smooth plan seems to be progressing well, but on the ground, there is discord everywhere. To shed the stigma of the smooth plan being a painful plan, additional policy improvements such as establishing clear guidelines appear necessary.

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