Denial of Suseo Station Solar Power Plant Construction 'Justified'!... Gangnam-gu Wins in Second Trial

Jung Soon-gyun, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, "Establishing Robot Tech Center in Suseo to Create a 'Top 3 Global Robot Cluster'"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gangnam-gu (District Mayor Jeong Soon-gyun) won the appeal trial held on the 1st at the Seoul High Court regarding the 'rejection of the construction permit for the solar power plant at Suseo Station public parking lot.'

Four organizations, including the Solar Power Generation Cooperative, filed a lawsuit against Gangnam-gu Office in April last year, requesting the cancellation of the rejection of the solar power plant installation permit, and won the first trial on January 21. The second trial court overturned the first trial ruling.

The court stated, “The public interest aspects of protecting the surrounding environment and landscape that Gangnam-gu aims to achieve, as well as protecting the living benefits of nearby residents, are recognized.”

Earlier, the cooperative obtained a 10-year land use permit and electricity generation business permit from Seoul City in April 2019 for the Suseo Station public parking lot, and on December 2, 2019, reported the construction of solar power generation facilities to Gangnam-gu.

Gangnam-gu comprehensively considered ▲ the appropriateness of urban planning aspects due to the installation of solar power facilities ▲ urban aesthetics and landscape degradation ▲ the necessity of resident opinion collection procedures through resident briefings and urban planning committee consultations, and rejected the permit on August 31 last year.

After the cooperative won the case in January, the district office filed an appeal on February 5, citing reasons that “considering land use plans and the impact on local residents' lives, it is public and reasonable that procedures to seek residents' cooperation and consent should precede.”

Jeong Soon-gyun, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, said, “This is a reasonable judgment by the court considering the protection of the surrounding environment and landscape and the living benefits of nearby residents,” and added, “We will develop the Suseo area into one of the ‘world’s top three robot clusters’ comparable to the Massachusetts cluster in the U.S. and the Odense cluster in Denmark by establishing a robot theme park, robot library, and Seoul Robot Tech Center.”