Gyeonggi Province, Suwon, and Yongin Oppose Mini-New Towns

▲ Governor Son Hak-gyu invited Suwon Mayor Kim Yong-seo and Yongin Mayor Lee Jeong-moon to the governor's official residence on the 23rd, received a briefing from Lee Hwa-soon, director of the Gyeonggi Province Urban Housing Bureau, and exchanged views while reviewing drawings related to the public institution relocation site. /Photo courtesy of Gyeonggi Province

Gyeonggi Province, Suwon, and Yongin have taken a unified stance of opposition to the central government's plan to supply housing on public institution relocation sites and decided to respond jointly.

On the 23rd morning, Governor Son Hak-gyu, Suwon Mayor Kim Yong-seo, and Yongin Mayor Lee Jeong-moon held a breakfast meeting at the governor's official residence and discussed plans for utilizing sites from public institution relocations, confirming their opposition stance.

Currently, Yongin has 490,000 pyeong of land from the Police Academy and National Institute of Correctional Education, which are targets for local relocation, while Suwon has 550,000 pyeong from the National Institute of Crop Science and National Institute of Animal Science, both being considered by the government as candidate sites for mini-new town development.

At the meeting, Yongin Mayor Lee Jeong-moon stated, "It doesn't make sense to create a mini-new town at the sites of Yongin's Police Academy and National Institute of Correctional Education," and added, "It's unreasonable to build only apartments on 490,000 pyeong of land without basic infrastructure."

Suwon Mayor Kim Yong-seo also said, "Suwon has no room to move or space to breathe, and building apartments here is not acceptable," and emphasized, "If the government pushes this through with special legislation, we will struggle together with all citizens."

In response, Governor Son stated, "Gyeonggi Province has prepared basic plans at a regional level due to such issues and has cooperated with the central government where possible," and stressed, "However, I cannot absolutely agree with the government's approach of pursuing policies in an amoeba-like fashion without any intention to discuss the recommendations."

Gyeonggi Province and the cities of Suwon and Yongin plan to convey their opposition to plans for building mini-new towns on public institution relocation sites to the Presidential Committee for Balanced National Development and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, and request that their position be reflected in the government's real estate policy to be announced later this month.

There are a total of 54 public institutions scheduled for local relocation across 12 cities in the province, covering 5,927,000 square meters (1,793,000 pyeong) of land, with 11,726 employees.