Mt. Seongmi residents oppose campus construction by Hongik

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The construction of a campus in Mt. Seongmi, located in western Seoul, by a private education foundation is embroiling relations between developers and environment protectionists.

The Hongik Foundation has been aiming to build schools by clearing woods and leveling an area of the mountain, but nearby residents are strongly opposing the plans, saying the construction will destroy the only natural forest in the Mapo district.

A group of residents have been holding a series of protests near the construction site, urging the foundation to stop the ongoing work.

Kim Yeon-gyung, a representative of the Residents’ Committee for Protecting Mt. Seongmi, said the constructions workers are using abusive language and behaving rudely toward the inhabitants more frequently.

The residents set up tents in protest of the construction and to protect the trees, but construction crews tried to tear them down. Last Thursday, a woman was taken to hospital for minor injuries after an altercation with the workers.

“The district office deferred the constructor’s use of the roads, meaning they have to stop chopping down the trees on Mt. Seongmi. Construction workers are becoming harsher toward the protestors,” Kim said.

The mountain has been a place for community cultural activities and the inhabitants have established a nursery and an alternative school and share eco-friendly food. They are worried about the damage to the forest and the possible danger to children as the traffic on the mountain will likely increase.

The foundation owns a site at the southern foot of the mountain and intends to move its elementary, middle and high school there to provide students with a more natural educational environment. Currently, the schools are located next to Hongik University and the foundation has been taking steps to move the school since 2005, obtaining construction approvals from Seoul City and Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

"The schools are too close to an entertainment district and the buildings are over 40 years old. The foundation is trying to exercise its property rights and it should not be stopped in the name of environmental protection," an official of the foundation said.

Mapo District Office has not granted a permit to the foundation, disallowing construction vehicles to use the roads near the building site. Since the vehicles are banned from going into the site, the construction that started in May is making slow progress.

"We went through the legal process to build a school on the site and what the Mapo Ward Office did is not understandable," the foundation official said.

The residents’ committee insists the schools should change the location of the new sites and preserve Mt. Seongmi.

They also filed a complaint with the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, calling for a review of its granting permission to build the school on the mountain, as a professor of Hongik University was included in the Urban Planning Committee, which approved the plan.

If the ministry accepts the residents’ claim, the Hongik Foundation will have to go through the approval process again.

The district office is also trying to reach a consensus between the foundation and residents near Mt. Seongmi.

"We cannot allow the foundation to continue construction as there is a big difference in the views between the residents and the schools," a ward official said. “The city and education office have approved the construction and we actually cannot stop the construction. But it is our job to arbitrate between the two.”