First Safety Inspection Applied in 2002... Passed After Four Attempts in 2010
2017 Construction Plan for 49 Floors Exceeding the '35-Floor Rule' Leads to Review Postponement
Internal Conflicts Among Residents as Project Progress Stalls... More Than Three Emergency Committees Formed
Maintenance Plan Review Passed After 5 Years... Union Establishment Procedures to Begin
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Seoyul] Daechi-dong Eunma Apartment, considered a symbol of reconstruction in Gangnam, Seoul, is set to accelerate its reconstruction project after fulfilling a long-cherished wish for the first time in 20 years. This success comes five years after the failure of the redevelopment plan review in 2017. The association promotion committee plans to proceed with the procedures for establishing the association thereafter.
On the 20th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government held the 11th Urban Planning Committee meeting the previous day and approved the revision of the redevelopment plan establishment and designation of the redevelopment zone and landscape review for the Eunma Apartment housing reconstruction project in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu. Eunma Apartment, located at 316 Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, was completed in 1979 and is a large-scale aged apartment complex with 28 buildings and 4,424 households. With the approval of this review, the complex is planned to be rebuilt into 33 buildings with 5,778 households (including 678 public housing units).
The prolonged delay in passing the redevelopment zone review was significantly influenced by revisions to the overall redevelopment plan, including infrastructure, traffic plans, and public contribution plans. This plan addressed previously insufficient traffic plans such as the development plans for station areas near Dogok Station and Hakyeoul Station, academy district park plans, and parking and mixed pedestrian-vehicle passage plans within the complex. By selecting an excellent design through an international station area design competition, a 15% floor area ratio incentive was also applied. A city official stated, "We plan to scrutinize more closely the parts that were revised and supplemented during the architectural plan review after the designation of the redevelopment zone."
With the approval of this review, the possibility of progress has opened up 20 years after the project promotion officially began. The Eunma Apartment reconstruction project has faced numerous twists and turns at every stage of project promotion. Although the reconstruction project started in 2002 with the first application for a safety diagnosis, it failed three times consecutively. It was only in March 2010, on the fourth attempt, that it received a conditional reconstruction-eligible D grade.
The redevelopment plan review also ended in disappointment. During the tenure of former Mayor Park Won-soon in 2017, the residents of Eunma Apartment proposed a building height of 49 floors, which far exceeded the city's "35-floor limit rule." Subsequently, the redevelopment plan review was put on hold for five years, and since the establishment of the association promotion committee on December 31, 2013, Eunma Apartment had not proceeded with any procedures.
The continuous setbacks also caused internal conflicts among Eunma Apartment residents. In 2018, the "Eunma Apartment Owners' Council," an emergency countermeasure group, voiced that the failure to pass the review multiple times led to the unavoidable application of the reconstruction excess profit recovery system and called for accountability from the then promotion committee. In addition, several emergency countermeasure groups such as the Eunma Neighborhood Association and Eunma Love Group appeared. Conflicts continued relatively recently, including the dismissal of the executive team that failed to establish the association in September last year, but the issue was settled when a new association promotion committee was formed in February this year.
With the Eunma Apartment redevelopment plan passing the Seoul city review hurdle, it is expected to give momentum to reconstruction redevelopment projects in the Gangnam area in the future. The association immediately informed its members of the review approval via text message and plans to collect written resolutions and consent forms to proceed with the association establishment procedures.
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