Suwon City Tackles Two Birds with One Stone Through Parking Lot Sharing Project

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City is seeing effective results in addressing parking shortages with minimal budget by utilizing a parking lot sharing project.

On the 18th, an opening ceremony for the "parking lot sharing project" was held at Seryou Middle School in Suwon. This is the first shared parking lot created by the city at a school. During October, the parking lot (35 spaces) will be opened free of charge from 6 p.m. on weekdays and holidays until 8 a.m. the next morning. The Seryou 1-dong Administrative Welfare Center will accept usage applications from the 1st to 10th of next month. In March, the city and Seryou Middle School signed an agreement on the "parking lot sharing project—happiness grows when we share." In August, facility improvement construction was carried out using Gyeonggi Province subsidies (50%) and city funds.

The free opening of Seryou Middle School's parking lot is the "parking lot sharing project" that the city began last year. The project opens private parking lots at religious and business facilities to nearby residents. Opening hours vary by facility. The city supports the cost of parking lot facility improvement construction.

In January last year, the city signed its first parking lot sharing business agreement with Central Church (Gyodong). Central Church provides 94 parking spaces on its church premises free of charge to residents (except Sundays and Wednesdays). In May last year, a total of 232 parking spaces at Suwon First Church, Suwon Young Lak Church, Peace Church with Forest and Spring (Jowon-dong), and Younghwa Church were opened free of charge.

Additionally, by concluding free land lease agreements with LH and KT&G, the city created parking lots using LH-owned land (120 spaces) next to Seryou Elementary School and part of the KT&G Suwon Factory site (Daeyupeong district) in Jungja-dong (120 spaces). Over the past year, the city secured 7 shared parking lots (566 spaces).

This year, in March, the city signed parking lot sharing agreements with Seryou Middle School, Peace Church (Homaesil-dong), and First Church. Starting with Seryou Middle School, Peace Church (30 spaces) and First Church (79 spaces) plan to open their parking lots by year-end. The Suwon High Court, which opened in March, is also participating in the parking lot sharing project. Its auxiliary parking lot of 100 spaces will be opened free of charge at night in October when facility improvement construction is completed.

Samilyeong Church (Yeongdeungpo-gu) and Suwon Hwasan Church (Jangan-gu) are also scheduled to participate in the parking lot sharing project by year-end. With the addition of these two churches' parking lots, the city's shared parking spaces will reach 880.

Through the parking sharing project, the city has resolved parking shortages and secured parking spaces with minimal budget. The city stated that creating parking lots through land acquisition requires a budget ranging from 70 million won to 100 million won per space.