A senior presidential aide on Wednesday said housing development on part of land set aside for a park in central Seoul could help South Korea tackle the former US military base’s costly soil cleanup, while putting a vast tract of prime land to use.
The proposal has emerged as a contentious part of the Lee Jae Myung administration’s Aug. 13 housing supply policy, as the government seeks to accelerate the construction of homes in central Seoul to stabilize the housing market.
The Lee administration is considering public rental and specialized housing for young people and newlyweds on parts of the Yongsan Park site, but the idea has drawn opposition from the Seoul city government, Yongsan District Office and residents.
Opponents argue that the land should be preserved as a symbolic national park and a rare green space in central Seoul after more than 120 years of foreign military presence, saying that once housing is built there, it cannot be turned into green space.
The Yongsan site was used by the US military for decades, with a 297,000-square-meter parcel returned in 1992 and the broader garrison handed back in phases from 2020 after the US Forces Korea headquarters moved in 2018 to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
The land has been earmarked for a public park, but the soil and groundwater has been contaminated, and most of it has still not been converted for public use.
Ha Joon-kyung, senior presidential secretary for economic growth, said the cleanup could cost from hundreds of billions of won to more than 1 trillion won ($714 million), and that building homes there would allow contaminated soil to be excavated and treated elsewhere.
“The money it would take to remove contaminants from Yongsan Park ranges from hundreds of billions of won at the low end to trillions of won,” Ha said during an interview with local broadcaster TV Chosun. “If part of the park were used for housing, we could dig up the ground, take the soil somewhere else and carry out the cleanup work.”
Ha also pointed to the size and location of Yongsan Park, contending that the valuable land in central Seoul should be put to better use.
“First, if you think about what kind of place Yongsan Park is, it covers 910,000 pyeong (3 square kilometers). The area inside the embankments of Yeouido is 880,000 pyeong. So there is a piece of land there that is larger than Yeouido,” Ha said.
Ha underlined that “it is important that this valuable piece of land be used well.”
He stressed that the government was not proposing turning the entire park into a housing complex, but was considering a balance between park space and housing. He also singled out housing for younger people as one possible use.
“We are thinking about ways to make it so that young people can make good use of it, get married and have children,” Ha said.
In a related development, Land Minister Kim Yun-duk said that housing young people is the priority, while stressing that only a part of Yongsan Park would be considered for development.
"(The plan) is to review whether building housing, particularly housing for young people, in limited areas (of the park) that are partially losing their function as green space, is a viable alternative," Kim told the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee on Wednesday.
Kim stressed that converting all of Yongsan Park into housing has not been considered at any point, and that various opinions on the matter will be gathered.
The proposal would face a legal hurdle. The Special Act on the Creation of Yongsan Park, enacted in 2007 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, bars the core Yongsan Park site from being sold or transferred for purposes other than use as a park.
Ha suggested revising the law to reflect changes in Seoul’s housing environment over the past two decades.
“Hasn’t Seoul’s residential environment changed a lot from 20 years ago to the situation today?” Ha said during his interview with TV Chosun. “We could think about adding a provision that, when there is a significant public-interest purpose, would allow part of it to be excluded through a review.”
Ha also addressed Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s calls for looser reconstruction and redevelopment rules, reiterating the Lee administration was not opposed, but that such projects could take years and produce relatively limited additional housing.
“Because the housing situation for young people is so bad, we have to find all kinds of ways,” Ha said.
In a separate statement, Cheong Wa Dae said that “the Land Ministry is conducting social discussions, including consultations with relevant agencies and gathering public opinion” over proposals such as using parts of Yongsan Park for new rental housing.
However, Cheong Wa Dae said that “no decisions have been made at this point regarding the specific method, entity or timing for gathering public opinion, including through opinion polls.”
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
