The Gyeonggi Province Office of Education and Suwon and Gimpo cities appear set for legal battles over school site issues. In particular, with the provincial education office maintaining its position not to establish schools in local governments that unilaterally approved resident recruitment without consultation, concerns are mounting over a potential school crisis.
According to the Gyeonggi Province Office of Education on the 3rd, on the 1st, the provincial education office requested the Gimpo City government and supervisory Gyeonggi Province to reverse their approval after Gimpo City bypassed the consultation procedures required by law with the education office and approved the housing project plan and sales plan submitted by Unam Construction.
This was because on the 29th of last month, Gimpo City approved the housing project plan and sales plan submitted by Unam Construction stating it would sell 1,202 units in the AC-14 block of the Yangjong district within the Gimpo Hangang New City.
Current law stipulates that when approving housing project plans, development projects should only be permitted when the installation of infrastructure facilities (schools) or the acquisition of necessary sites is appropriate. However, the argument is that Gimpo City is not adhering to these approval criteria.
In particular, an official from the provincial education office stated, "If the request for reversal is not accepted, we have no choice but to consider legal measures such as filing for injunctive relief." Specifically, if the school site burden fee of approximately 960 billion won (according to the provincial education office's estimate) that the province must pay is not received, the education office will no longer be able to establish schools with its own funds alone. The request for free provision of school sites has also not been accepted to date.
Meanwhile, Suwon City, ahead of the first sales of Gwanggyo New City, intends to approve the sales plan for 1,188 units in the A-21 block by Ultra Construction as scheduled. A city official stated, "If there are no significant issues with the construction company's business plan, we will approve resident recruitment announcements according to principle," and added, "We should not cause damage to private companies due to issues that the province and provincial education office must resolve."
Accordingly, the provincial education office is taking the position that if Suwon City approves sales without its consent, it will take legal action together with Gimpo City.
These decisions by Gimpo City and Suwon City are interpreted as following an internal guideline from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to prevent cases where private development projects are delayed due to local government negligence. If school establishment is hindered, concerns are also being raised about potential school shortages in new city development areas.
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