"Thank You for Working Well" Praise Banner in Apartment Complex, Here's the Story...

GTX-C Line Passes 30m Below Dobong Hanshin Complex with 10,000 Residents
Wide Road Next to Complex Not Considered Despite Being an Alternative
Residents, Dobong District Office, and Local Politicians Unite for Recent 'Design Change'

Residents of Dobong Hanshin Apartment in Dobong-dong, Seoul voluntarily hung banners praising the Dobong District Office and local politicians on the 29th of last month. The photo shows banners hung on buildings 122 and 125. Photo by Reader Provided.

"Thank you for working well together with Dobong District Office." "We are happy to have seamless Dobong politics together."

A large banner measuring 10 meters wide and 15 meters high hung in an apartment complex in Seoul is becoming a hot topic. The reason is its content. While it is common to see banners hung in apartment complexes, it is rare to see a large banner praising the district mayor, district office officials, or local politicians.

The residents of Dobong Hanshin Apartment, where nearly 10,000 people live in about 2,700 households, hung such banners on buildings 106, 122, and 125.

The story is as follows. The metropolitan area express railroad (GTX)-C line, which connects Deokjeong Station, Uijeongbu Station, Chang-dong Station, Samsung Station, Gwacheon Station, and Suwon Station, confirmed the underground construction of the Dobong section last May. The Dobong section covers a 5.4 km stretch from Dobongsan Station to Chang-dong Station.

However, at the end of June, the residents suddenly received a compensation plan notice from the Korea Real Estate Board, the entrusted agency for compensation work, under the names of the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the President of the Korea Real Estate Board. The notice stated that since the underground section of the GTX-C line passes beneath the apartment complex, compensation would be provided and surface rights would be established.

The problem was that the depth of this underground section was only 30 meters. It was about 15 meters below the third basement parking lot. Despite the presence of an alternative route beneath the adjacent roads?Dobong-ro, an 8-lane road, and a 2-lane road?residents were outraged that the route was designed to pass under the apartment complex. They argued that if the 146-meter section were designed just 1.5 meters toward the adjacent road from the apartment complex, it would not pass beneath the complex.

Another issue was the very short two-week period given to residents, who were unaware of this before the compensation plan announcement, to submit objections. The apartment residents' representative council took the lead and worked tirelessly. At this time, Dobong District Office and local politicians actively stepped in. Eventually, on the 22nd of last month, residents heard from Dobong District Mayor Oh Eun-seok that the design change had been confirmed. The route was redesigned to shift 1.5 meters westward toward the road, avoiding the apartment complex.

Lee Jung-won, chairman of the Dobong Hanshin Apartment Residents' Representative Council, said, "From the first inquiry, the district office staff and the responsible department actively advised and helped us as if it were their own matter, including accepting the objection letters, allowing residents to handle the matter quickly." He added, "The residents hung the banner to express their gratitude to the Dobong District Office officials and local politicians."

Mayor Oh Eun-seok met with related parties several times to convey the residents' claims and took the lead in resolving the issue. According to the residents' representative, not only Oh Ki-hyung, the local district member of the National Assembly, but also Kim Jae-seop, the member from the neighboring district, stepped in to help resolve the issue.