By Kim Rahn
Seoul City, headed by liberal Mayor Park Won-soon, is moving to scrap many of the big-scale urban redevelopment projects, called New Towns, conditional to opposition from residents to the reconstruction plans.
Mayor Park said Monday that during his term, there will be a moratorium on New Towns, which was initiated by former Mayor Lee Myung-bak and actively promoted by Lee’s successor Oh Se-hoon.
The review — and possibly scrapping of projects in many districts — comes from Park’s belief that the large-scale redevelopment schemes have only expelled citizens from their longtime place of residence, invited speculators and caused conflicts among interested parties.
“The New Town has incurred huge sacrifices, with residents being deprived of their rights to reside and rights to live. Today is the day to end the 10 years of New Town history that has made Seoul one huge construction site,” Park said in a briefing at City Hall.
Among the capital’s total 1,300 areas under redevelopment, the city will review 610 where the construction plan hasn’t been approved yet. It will decide whether to progress the restructuring schemes after inspecting economic feasibility and other conditions as well as collecting residents’ opinions.
If a majority of the residents want their district to undergo a facelift, the city will help them with faster and larger administrative support. If they don’t, the plan will be scrapped and the city will help them find other smaller-scale ways to develop their neighborhoods.
“Even in the case where the plan will continue following the majority’s consent, poor tenants receiving government’s living allowances will be offered public leased-housing, as they won’t be able to return there after redevelopment because rent prices will go up,” Park said.
Constructors will also be banned from forcibly removing tenants at night, especially during the rainy season or in winter, in order to protect their rights. Tenants will also be encouraged to participate in drawing up the redevelopment plans.
If a redevelopment plan is dropped in an area where residents have already formed an association to promote it, the city will pay the association’s losses.
But as the costs sometimes reach about 10 billion won, Park urged the central government to pay a part. “Politicians who recklessly promoted the New Town projects and the government which neglected them are accountable for the current problems surrounding these New Towns,” he said.