A New Name for Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park: Awaiting Citizens' Choices

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Yongin City announced on the 31st that it will conduct an online preference survey for citizens from April 1 to 22 through its city website to select a new name for Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park.

This is to provide citizens with an opportunity to select a name that reflects the region's identity and characteristics, taking into account the symbolic significance of Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park.

Any citizen can participate by clicking on the 'Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park Citizen Participation Naming Survey' post on the city website under Yongin News-News-City Updates.

Selecting a name through citizen nomination and preference surveys is the third such effort, following 'Yongin Harmony(林) Park' and 'Byeoldaol Neighborhood Park.' This reflects the significant symbolic importance of Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park in Yongin City's park and green space policy.

Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park is the largest among 13 long-pending unexecuted parks that faced the risk of disappearing due to the urban park sunset clause.

The urban park sunset clause is a system that automatically removes park designation from land that has been designated as parkland in urban management plans but has not begun park development projects for an extended period.

Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park spans from Shinbong-dong to Seongbok-dong in Suji-gu and covers an area of 518,047 square meters, equivalent to 72.5 soccer fields. Located near the Yongin-Seoul Expressway Seosuji Tollgate and with approximately 20,000 apartment units in Seongbok-dong and Shinbong-dong, the area has high development pressure.

The city decided to develop this area as a park to preserve large-scale green space in the city facing the risk of disappearing due to development demand and return it to citizens.

The fact that over 30% of citizens surveyed annually point to 'parks, green spaces, and walking paths' as necessary facilities or ones that should be increased played a major role in this decision.

Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park was selected for the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) public land reserve project, with LH conducting advance compensation purchases. From the city's perspective, this reduces land compensation costs that could surge significantly and allows for installment payments over five years, easing fiscal management pressure.

The city is considering various measures to secure citizen-centered green spaces by expanding citizen participation in park naming and development.

Including the flat-form urban park on the Chongin-gu Mapyeong-dong complex sports facility site, the Yongin Harmony(林) Park, spanning 2.7 million square meters, encompasses Gyeongan-cheon urban forest, Mohyeon Galdam ecological forest, and Yubang-dong citizen green rest area. Citizens' choices were reflected in the official naming and development idea recruitment, and Byeoldaol Neighborhood Park, built in Seongbok-dong, Suji-gu, also finalized its name through resident recruitment.

The city's efforts to expand various types of green spaces for citizens' healthy lives resulted in a silver award in the 'Whole City Award' category at the LivCom Awards, known as the 'Green Oscar,' in December last year.

Meanwhile, the city plans to finalize five candidates reflecting the online preference survey results and select the final name in May through an internal review meeting with the evaluation committee.

Below are the candidates for Shinbong 3 Neighborhood Park's new name that passed the first round of the citizen naming idea competition.

▲Suji Green Forest Park ▲Seosuji Forest Park ▲Suji Beautiful Forest Park ▲Forest Nuri Park ▲Seosuji Central Park ▲Forest Scent Park ▲Seosuji Green Forest Park ▲Seosuji Forest Park ▲Seosuji Green Park ▲Suji Central Park ▲Suji Forest Park ▲Seosuji Nature Park ▲Domachi Sky Park ▲Seosuji Ecological Forest Park ▲Suji Green Park ▲Beautiful Suji Forest Park ▲Seosuji Park ▲Seosuji Neighborhood Park ▲Our Forest Park ▲Green Forest Park ▲Suji Neonadul-i Park