Hwaseong Promotes 'Hwaseong Special Garden' for Citizen Garden Culture

[Suwon Ilbo=Park Chan-hyuk] Hwaseong Special City announced on the 29th that it will create the 'Hwaseong Special Garden' as a first step toward building 'Hwaseong Special City in Gardens' made together with citizens.

This is interpreted as reflecting the commitment to not only create leisure and culture facilities with plants as a theme through 'Botanic Garden Hwaseong,' a priority project of the 8th popularly-elected administration, but also to foster a citizen-friendly garden culture where 1.05 million residents of the special city can communicate, cooperate, and coexist together.

The 'Hwaseong Special Garden' is a citizen-participatory public garden where civic communities voluntarily participate throughout the entire process from garden creation to maintenance at major park sites selected by the city, and is expected to contribute to improving the quality of urban environment and establishing garden culture based on citizen participation.

Mayor Jung Myeong-geun appointed Kwak Sang-wook, chairman of ESG Korea Garden Policy Forum, as a special advisory member for Hwaseong Special Garden on the 28th, and decided to seek expert opinions to promote garden culture and strengthen implementation.

Special advisory member Kwak Sang-wook served as mayor of Osan from 2010 to 2022 and focused on citizen-centered urban environment improvement projects including the ecological river restoration project of the Osan Stream, and has led the promotion of garden culture administration that integrates garden and urban policies.

During his two-year tenure, member Kwak is expected to play an important role in providing field and practice-oriented guidelines for establishing a citizen-participatory garden culture foundation, policy consultation, and external cooperation.

Mayor Jung said, "Gardens are now a key public asset that determines citizens' lives and the dignity of cities," adding "Through the creation of the 'Hwaseong Special Garden' where citizens and experts work together, we will lead the way in fostering garden culture that connects citizens' daily lives and communities."