144,000 Square Meters Designated
Selected for Ministry of Land’s "Greenbelt Damaged Area Restoration Project"
The 144,000-square-meter area of an abandoned mine near the Bongdam 3 Public Housing District in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, which had been left unattended for 27 years, will be transformed into an ecological park.
A panoramic view of the 'Sambo Abandoned Mine' area in Sang-ri, Bongdam-eup, Hwaseong. The 144,000㎡ area will be transformed into a large-scale ecological park after soil remediation work. Provided by Hwaseong City
On January 29, Hwaseong City announced that the Hwaseong Cultural Ecological Park (Sambo Abandoned Mine) was finally selected as the site for the "Greenbelt Damaged Area Restoration Project" after deliberation by the Central Urban Planning Committee of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
This project requires developers, when a greenbelt is lifted, to restore 10 to 20 percent of the released area by turning nearby damaged greenbelt land into parks and green spaces.
The newly selected project site covers 144,000 square meters within the 390,000-square-meter Hwaseong Cultural Ecological Park, located in the greenbelt near the Bongdam 3 District. The restoration project will be carried out by Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH), which is responsible for developing the Bongdam 3 District.
The Sambo Abandoned Mine in San 104-1, Sang-ri, Bongdam-eup, ceased operations in 1999 when its mining rights expired. Since 2008, the Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation has been implementing mine hazard prevention projects at the site. While the city has continuously pushed for the transformation of the abandoned mine into a park, it has faced significant financial challenges due to the costs of soil remediation and park construction.
The breakthrough for the restoration project came in December 2022, when the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport designated the nearby Bongdam 3 District. The city then developed a plan to turn the abandoned mine into a park using the ministry’s restoration project and was selected as a project site through consultations with relevant agencies.
In particular, with LH taking charge of the restoration project following this selection, the city expects to save approximately 41.6 billion won in financial resources.
Following this designation, the abandoned mine area will first undergo soil remediation to remove heavy metal contamination. Afterwards, various ecological park facilities such as artificial purification wetlands, landscape crop gardens, and lawn plazas will be established on the site. To improve park accessibility, the city plans to designate a park access road as part of the urban management plan during the first half of this year.
A city official stated, "We will develop the Sambo Abandoned Mine into an ecological park that goes beyond a simple green space, blending history, nature, and culture."
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