The government and the Seoul Metropolitan Government will reopen talks on supplying dwellings in Yongsan Park. Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon met on the 20th but only confirmed their differences over using the park's main site. The National Assembly is scheduled on the 26th to handle a bill to revise the special act on creating Yongsan Park that would ease development standards for scattered sites around the area, including Camp Kim.
Whether to preserve the former Yongsan U.S. military base site as a park or to build dwellings or office and commercial facilities has been a recurring debate since the late 1980s. Whenever Seoul's dwelling shortage worsened, development arguments surfaced, but the government and the Seoul Metropolitan Government have maintained the principle of keeping the main site as a park. Attention is on whether the two sides will find common ground in this debate that has lasted more than 30 years.
1) In the 1990s, choosing a "park" despite the dwelling shortage
Discussions on the transfer of the Yongsan base began when Roh Tae-woo, then the Democratic Justice Party's presidential candidate, proposed it as a campaign pledge in 1987. As Seoul's dwelling shortage was severe, calls emerged both to build dwellings on the returned site and to use it for parks and public facilities for citizens.
Korea and the United States signed a basic agreement and memorandum of understanding in 1990 on the transfer of the Yongsan base. The Seoul Metropolitan Government the following year prepared the "Plan for Utilizing Former Military Sites in Yongsan and the Basic Plan" and unveiled a vision to create a national park. The idea was to return to citizens a large green space in the heart of Seoul that would be difficult to secure again.
However, as ROK-U.S. negotiations over sharing the transfer expense were delayed, the government effectively put the transfer project on hold in 1993. Even afterward, ideas were floated to build public facilities such as the new Seoul City Hall building and the National Museum of Korea on parts of the Yongsan site, but the principle of creating the main site as a park was maintained.
2) The 2007 special act: the main site is a park, the surroundings are for development
In 2003, when the leaders of South Korea and the United States agreed on the transfer of the Yongsan base, discussions on creating the park resumed in earnest. The government and the Seoul Metropolitan Government agreed on the broad direction of turning it into a park. They clashed, however, over whether to preserve the entire main site as a park and over who would exercise urban-planning authority.
The draft special act prepared by the government at the time included a basis for allowing the Minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to change the zoning or district of the park-creation zone if necessary. The Seoul Metropolitan Government argued that this clause could later be used for developing apartments, residential-commercial complexes, or commercial facilities, and demanded that the law specify turning the entire main site into a park.
The special act on creating Yongsan Park, enacted in 2007, set as a principle the creation of the entire main site as a park. It also prohibited changing the use for non-park purposes or selling it. Instead, scattered surrounding sites such as Camp Kim could be developed as complex-facility creation zones to accommodate residential, commercial, office, and cultural facilities.
Even after the return of the Yongsan base and the creation of the park were delayed, this principle was maintained. In the 2020s, the main issues shifted from developing the main site to the U.S. military's return of land, soil contamination remediation, phased opening, and the final method of park creation.
3) Government: "dwellings on damaged land"… Seoul city: "not on the main site"
What has changed from the past is that the government said it would use only land where buildings already exist or where green functions have been lost for supplying dwellings, not the entire Yongsan Park. Sites such as officers' housing, military apartments, and the former Defense Acquisition Program Administration land are being mentioned as candidates. The government judges that it can both supply dwellings for young people and newlyweds and protect the park's green functions.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government's position is that these sites are also part of the main site that the special act requires to be created as a park, and therefore should not be used for supplying dwellings. Instead, it proposed to the government a plan to increase supply by high-density development of scattered surrounding sites such as Camp Kim and nearby state-owned land.
The revision to the special act on creating Yongsan Park, scheduled for handling in the National Assembly on the 26th, also eases standards for securing parks and green spaces on scattered sites such as Camp Kim. It does not include changing the main site into land for dwellings. For the government to supply dwellings on parts of the main site, a separate legal revision and public debate would be needed.
Ultimately, in this week's talks, the key issue is expected to be whether to increase supply on surrounding sites while maintaining the principle of preserving the main site as a park, or to use even parts of the main site where buildings already exist for supplying dwellings.
An urban-planning expert who requested anonymity said, "Supplying dwellings is essential, but we should not view Yongsan Park only as a short-term means of supply," and added, "We need to make a decision by considering the supply effect, the value of urban green space, historicity, and long-term urban competitiveness in a comprehensive manner."