Changnyeong-gun Restores Illegal Park Golf Course along Nakdong River to Original State

Measures to Meet Park Golf Demand in Accordance with Legal Procedures

Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongnam Province, has decided to restore a park golf course built along the Nakdong River without obtaining a river occupancy permit to its original state.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Wook] Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongnam announced on the 3rd that it will restore a park golf course, which was created without obtaining a river occupancy permit along the Nakdong River in the past, to its original state and take measures to meet the demand for park golf through proper legal procedures.

Park golf has the advantage of being enjoyable for people of all ages without burden, leading to a rapid increase in enthusiasts. It was surveyed that about 1,200 enthusiasts enjoy park golf in 23 clubs in Changnyeong-gun.

Therefore, since 2020, the county has established 63 holes of park golf courses at three locations along the Nakdong River to meet the rapidly increasing demand from park golf enthusiasts.

However, these park golf courses are facilities without river occupancy permits from the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office, causing frequent complaints, and in November last year, the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office notified a restoration order for the Namji and Ibang park golf courses.

Accordingly, in November of the same year, a meeting with park golf stakeholders was held, where County Governor Kim Bu-young directly informed enthusiasts of the current situation and discussed countermeasures, responding promptly.

The county has been continuously consulting with the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office to legalize the park golf courses without river occupancy permits and has started administrative procedures such as commissioning a small-scale environmental impact assessment for the Yeo and Ibang park golf courses.

Additionally, to meet the demand for park golf, the county confirmed the establishment of three park golf courses by region as a pledge project of the 8th local government administration and announced a plan to invest 16 billion KRW by 2025.

In principle, the Namji park golf course, which cannot be legalized, was decided to be closed at the end of last year, and for the creation of alternative sites, environmental location consulting was requested for three candidate sites, with positive responses received from the Nakdong River Basin Environmental Office for two of them.

A county official said, “Although protests from enthusiasts are expected due to the closure of the Namji park golf course, it seems to reflect Governor Kim Bu-young’s usual determination to part ways with illegal and unreasonable practices.”

Governor Kim said, “We will normalize past illegalities in Changnyeong-gun and examine whether there are similar cases in the future,” adding, “We will expand park golf courses as soon as possible to minimize inconvenience to residents.”