[Inside Chodong] Balanced Development: Building Houses Is Not Enough

Park Seung, former Governor of the Bank of Korea, who served as Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs and Minister of Construction during the Roh Tae-woo administration and drafted the plans for the five major new towns including Bundang and Ilsan, advocated for the enactment of the "Special Act on Gangbuk Development" in 2002. He argued that sporadic redevelopment led by the private sector could not serve as an alternative residential area to Gangnam and would inevitably result in unplanned development. The market was stirred by his proposal to designate large-scale development zones of 10,000 to 50,000 pyeong in areas of Gangbuk where the residential environment was so poor that even cars could not enter.

In the same year, Lee Myung-bak, who had just taken office as Mayor of Seoul, incorporated "Gangbuk Development" into municipal regulations. He documented the "priority allocation of city budgets" to the Gangbuk area and even promised benefits that could be perceived as preferential treatment.

However, 24 years later, the phenomenon of "one solid home in Gangnam," shaped by the logic of housing market choices and investment psychology, stands as evidence of the failure of Gangbuk development. The policy overlooked the chain linking "education → demand → housing prices," and unlike Gangnam, where large-scale reconstruction projects have cycled through vast areas, the slow pace of redevelopment centered on densely populated residential zones in Gangbuk has only widened the gap. During this period, the visions for Gangbuk drawn by successive mayors of Seoul, who represented opposite ends of the spectrum, diverged in direction and ultimately lost public trust.

Even the current Seoul Metropolitan Government’s balanced development plan for Gangbuk, promoted under the banner of the "Gangbuk Golden Age," is unlikely to produce short-term development effects proportional to the investment. Some interpret it as a strategic policy aimed at winning votes in the Gangbuk region ahead of local elections, making policy continuity difficult to guarantee.

Nevertheless, there are promising aspects to the new approach, which differs from the past focus solely on renovating old residential areas. The emphasis has shifted toward redesigning living infrastructure to achieve "balanced development" beyond simply supplying housing. In the areas of Seoul with the highest concentration of apartments, the country’s first and largest K-pop concert hall and major hubs for artificial intelligence (AI) and big data industries are being established. Logistics and train depots in various parts of Gangbuk, previously seen as obstacles to local development, are being transformed into residential and business spaces linked to corporate attraction.

Another departure from the past is the bold removal of factors that have hindered balanced development. The undergrounding of the Inner Ring Road and the Northern Arterial Road, which have been the only east-west transportation corridors in Gangbuk, marks the beginning of this change.

Both roads have lost their function as arterial routes and now only add risk and maintenance costs due to aging infrastructure. Although more than 3 trillion won will need to be invested over the next decade, this presents Gangbuk with an opportunity to shed its image as merely a bedroom community. Once the elevated structures, which have acted like the Great Wall of China in blocking regional connectivity, are removed, these spaces will be transformed into places where people can gather and stay.

Ultimately, the future of Gangbuk depends not on "building more houses," but on "creating reasons to live there." Residential preferences are shaped by the sum of everyday experiences. To avoid repeating past failures, it is necessary to design elements that attract people and demand, not just supply high-quality housing. Without everyday infrastructure that combines education, jobs, culture, and transportation, development will end as yet another experiment.

What is needed now is policy consistency and time. Balanced development begins not with election-driven slogans, but by creating a structure where people can settle, raise children, and plan for the future. When the public believes that the basic framework will be maintained even under the next administration, people and capital will follow.

More important than frequent revisions of plans or changes in names is the consistent implementation of budgets, systems, and permits. The city must be managed with a long-term urban vision looking 10 or 20 years ahead, not as a short-term achievement for a single-term mayor.

Even today’s Gangnam did not become established simply through a few urban planning decisions and rising housing prices. Building a city’s stature requires the accumulation of time. What Seoul needs to choose is not another slogan, but the patient execution of a long-term vision.