Insufficient Measures for Downtown Hollowing, Funding Procurement, and Infrastructure Review Highlighted
Gangwon Province's Goeun-ri Administrative Complex Town Project Faces Setback
On September 10, the Chuncheon city government announced that it has returned Gangwon Province's submission for the "Designation and Development Plan (Draft) of the Goeun-ri Administrative Complex Town Urban Development Zone."
Chuncheon cited insufficient supplementation of measures to address downtown hollowing, funding procurement plans, and infrastructure suitability as the main reasons for its decision.
The Goeun-ri Administrative Complex Town project was announced on December 21, 2022, through a joint statement by the governor of Gangwon Province and the mayor of Chuncheon. At that time, Gangwon Province designated the area of Goeun-ri, Dongnae-myeon, Chuncheon, as the site for the new Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province government office, and announced plans to develop a 1 million square meter administrative complex town, including a 100,000 square meter provincial government office, 300,000 square meters for public institutions, and 600,000 square meters for commercial, business, and media town facilities.
However, disagreements arose between the two parties after Gangwon Province changed part of the plan to residential land without prior consultation with Chuncheon.
Chuncheon requested revisions during a project briefing in April 2025, but Gangwon Province submitted the plan in May without substantial improvements. Despite the first and second rounds of supplementation procedures, the city determined that sufficient revisions on the same issues had not been made.
The reasons for Chuncheon's rejection include: insufficient measures to address downtown hollowing; instability in the funding procurement plan; lack of alignment with urban planning and housing supply policies; inadequate review of infrastructure; and issues with consistency with the surrounding environment.
In particular, the absence of a concrete financial plan to address concerns over the decline of the old downtown area and the continued shortfall of 374.4 billion won out of the total project cost of 666.1 billion won were highlighted as major issues.
A Chuncheon city official stated, "We cooperated to ensure the smooth progress of the project by making urban planning decisions on the government office site and access roads, but the province's supplementary measures were insufficient," adding, "It will take considerable time to resolve these issues."
As a result of this rejection, the Goeun-ri Administrative Complex Town development project is expected to face inevitable delays, and further consultations and coordination between Gangwon Province and Chuncheon are also expected to be unavoidable.
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