Suwon City's Parking Lot Sharing Project Achieves Two Goals at Once

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City is achieving results in solving parking shortages with minimal budget by utilizing its parking lot sharing project.

On the 18th, an "unveiling ceremony for the parking lot sharing project" was held at Seryou Middle School in Suwon. This is the first shared parking lot created at a school by the city. Starting in 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 day. The Seryou 1-dong Administrative Welfare Center will accept applications for use from the 1st to 10th of next month. Suwon City and Seryou Middle School signed a "Happiness Through Sharing: Parking Lot Sharing Project" agreement in March. In August, facility improvement construction was carried out using Gyeonggi Province subsidies (50%) and city funds.

Seryou Middle School's free parking lot opening is part of 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 provides support for parking lot facility improvement construction costs.

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

Additionally, the city signed free land lease agreements with LH and KT&G to create parking lots on LH-owned land (120 spaces) next to Seryou Elementary School and part of KT&G Suwon Factory site (Daeyuping District) (120 spaces). The city secured 7 shared parking lots (566 spaces) over the past year.

This year, the city signed parking lot sharing agreements with Seryou Middle School, Peace Church (Homae-sil-dong), and First Church in March. Starting with Seryou Middle School, Peace Church (30 spaces) and First Church (79 spaces) plan to open their parking lots this year. Suwon High Court, which opened in March, also participates in the parking lot sharing project. It will open 100 parking spaces in its affiliated parking lot free of charge at night starting in October when facility improvement construction is completed.

Saming Church (Yeongdeungpo-gu) and Suwon Hwasan Church (Jangan-gu) are also scheduled to participate in the parking lot sharing project this year. When the two church parking lots are added, the city's shared parking spaces will reach 880.

Through the parking lot sharing project, the city has solved parking shortages and secured parking spaces with minimal budget. The city stated that when creating parking lots through land purchase, a budget of between 70 million won to 100 million won per parking space is needed.