The Olympic Athletes' Village Apartment in Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, secured an approval rate of more than 50% just nine days after receiving residents' consent forms to form a reconstruction promotion committee.
Last month, the Seoul city government revised its guidelines to expand the way reconstruction promotion committees are formed so residents can establish them autonomously, and the Olympic Athletes' Village Apartment is expected to become the first complex to benefit from the adoption of the resident-led model.
According to the real estate industry on the 29th, the Olympic Athletes' Village Apartment Reconstruction Promotion Group (Oljaedan) plans to submit to Songpa-gu on the 30th a total of 3,033 residents' consent forms to form a reconstruction promotion committee out of the complex's roughly 5,500 union members.
Oljaedan said that starting Sept. 20, it began collecting consent forms from residents and, in just nine days, secured a 54.4% approval rate, surpassing the 50% threshold required to form a promotion committee.
Earlier, on Aug. 19, the Seoul city government, through its "Public Support System Improvement Plan," expanded the methods for forming reconstruction promotion committees so they can be created not only under public leadership but also through a resident-led model. The gist is that in areas without conflict and with sufficient resident capacity, the public supporter—that is, the district office—may allow residents to form a promotion committee autonomously at its discretion.
Until then, reconstruction promotion committees had to be formed under a public-led model. The district office would allocate a budget and select a service agency, and it took six to eight months just to draw up a roster of land and other owners.
If the resident-led model is chosen, the committee can be formed by securing consent forms from 50% of complex residents and submitting them to the district office. This offers the advantage of a relatively faster project pace compared with the public-led model.
With the latest change in Seoul's guidelines, the Olympic Athletes' Village Apartment is expected to become the first complex to receive approval for a resident-led reconstruction promotion committee. Oljaedan expects to receive approval from Songpa-gu as early as the end of next month.
Completed in 1988, the Olympic Athletes' Village Apartment is a complex of 122 buildings, from one basement level to as high as 24 stories, with 5,540 households, built on 532,597.4 square meters at 89 Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul.
Oljaedan plans to remake the Olympic Athletes' Village Apartment into 68 buildings with five basement levels and up to 45 stories, totaling 9,200 households, through the "Shintong Planning" fast-track advisory approach.
Yoo Sang-geun, Director General of Oljaedan, said, "Despite being a large complex with more than 5,000 households, surpassing a 50% resident approval rate for forming the promotion committee in nine days shows how strong the desire for reconstruction is," adding, "After receiving approval for the promotion committee, we plan to begin selecting a reconstruction design firm in December this year."