Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo District, Actively Opposes Rental Housing Supply in Sangam Area

The Site of Sangam Western Driver's License Test Center and Sangam-dong Landmark Site Should Be Utilized as a 4th Industrial Revolution Hub Space to Foster Local Future Growth Engines

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo District

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Mapo-gu (Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun) strongly opposed the plan to supply about 6,200 housing units through new site development in Sangam-dong and the utilization of public institution idle sites included in the government’s announced ‘Plan to Expand Housing Supply in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and Surrounding Areas’ on the 4th, and demanded that the housing plan for Mapo-gu be excluded from the plan.

The government’s announcement of the ‘Plan to Expand Housing Supply in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and Surrounding Areas’ includes building a total of about 6,200 public housing units in one area of Sangam-dong by utilizing sites such as the Western Driver’s License Test Center located in Mapo-gu.

The Sangam-dong area in Mapo-gu was developed as the Digital Media City (DMC) district, the center of Korea’s IT and media industries, through the Sangam site development, and the rental housing ratio in Sangam-dong currently accounts for 47%.

However, the large-scale shopping mall construction plan near Sangam DMC Station, which has been promoted, has been stagnant and not progressed even after 10 years, and the development of the landmark site in Sangam-dong, which is expected to play a key role in future job creation in the Sangam DMC area, remains distant and has been left unattended for a long time.

In particular, the Western Driver’s License Test Center in Sangam-dong has been a large-scale but underutilized facility that provided little benefit to local residents. The district office has been continuously consulting with Seoul City to make this site a new strategic base and use it efficiently.

Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun of Mapo-gu stated, “While I agree with the government’s policy direction to increase new housing supply to stabilize real estate prices, supplying housing by utilizing idle land in Sangam-dong is not a plan for the urban development of Mapo but rather treats Mapo merely as a means of housing supply. Such reckless real estate policies will ultimately undermine the government’s credibility.”

He added, “Since Sangam-dong in Mapo-gu was developed as a mecca of Korea’s IT and media industries, this announcement is developing land that should be used for future job creation and regional development into housing, which is absolutely unacceptable. Sangam-dong should be developed as a hub for innovative industries leading the 4th industrial revolution and as a cooperation space in preparation for the era of inter-Korean cooperation.”

Furthermore, he argued, “It is unacceptable that the construction of about 6,200 rental housing units in a single neighborhood of Sangam-dong was announced unilaterally without any consultation with the local government, Mapo-gu. Especially, the area near the Sangam-dong landmark site has almost no commercial facilities and suffers from severe traffic congestion due to the World Cup Stadium and other factors. If large-scale housing is supplied through high-density development, traffic congestion will worsen, and urgent expansion of transportation infrastructure is necessary.”

He also stated, “This unilateral announcement by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which sacrifices Mapo residents to control housing prices in Gangnam, is something I, as the mayor of Mapo-gu, cannot overlook and is a disrespectful act toward Mapo residents. I will stand with the residents of Mapo until this issue is resolved.”

Jeong Cheong-rae, member of the National Assembly (Democratic Party of Korea, Seoul Mapo-eul), said, “The government’s unilateral announcement of the housing supply plan utilizing idle land in Sangam-dong without any prior consultation with the directly elected local district member of the National Assembly, the mayor of Mapo-gu, Seoul city councilors, and Mapo-gu councilors is absolutely unacceptable. We must find wisdom so that the government’s housing policy and local residents can both succeed.”