Seongnam city will decide as early as next week the direction of the "Pangyo Botdeul Retention Basin complex development project," which it has pursued to build housing facilities for young workers. With strong resident opposition, there is speculation that the project will effectively move toward being scrapped.
According to Seongnam city on the 5th, the city plans to hold a municipal coordination committee meeting next week, chaired by Vice Mayor Lim Jong-cheol, to discuss whether to continue the Botdeul Retention Basin development project. Reflecting the opposition raised at a recent resident briefing, the city plans to reach a final conclusion within this month.
A Seongnam city official said, "The municipal coordination committee is a body that deliberates and decides on the city's major policies," and noted, "If we are to withdraw a project already underway, we must go through the relevant procedures."
Earlier, on the 26th, Seongnam city held a resident briefing at the Sampyeong-dong Community Service Center in Bundang-gu and gathered opinions from residents of Sampyeong-dong and Baekhyeon-dong.
One resident who attended the briefing said, "Of the 80 attendees, 79 expressed opposition and only one was in favor," and added, "Most called for keeping the retention basin as is due to concerns about worsening traffic congestion and a deteriorating residential environment."
Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin said at the briefing, "We have sufficiently confirmed residents' opinions," and added, "We will carefully review the concerns raised and convene the municipal coordination committee promptly to reach a conclusion so residents will not worry." This has been interpreted as the city effectively signaling its intention to withdraw the project.
Local residents and political circles say scrapping the project is inevitable. Park Jong-gak, a Seongnam city council member representing Sampyeong-dong, said, "The Botdeul Retention Basin is a space created as a sports park while maintaining the function of a retention basin by making maximum use of the existing terrain, in line with the intent to minimize environmental damage during the development of Pangyo New Town," and added, "As residents want to keep it as is, youth housing should be pursued at a more suitable site." Park added, "We will seek ways to reorganize the Botdeul Retention Basin to provide residents with an even more pleasant resting environment."
The Botdeul Retention Basin complex development project plans to supply a total of 646 dwellings, including 342 public sale dwellings and 304 job-linked supportive dwellings, in the area of 667, Sampyeong-dong, Bundang-gu, and to build a public library and a startup center. It has been pursued with the goal of supplying housing near workplaces for workers in Pangyo Techno Valley.
In January last year, the project was selected for the "second half of 2024 job-linked supportive housing contest project" by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and received 29 billion won in financial support, including national funds. Seongnam city aimed to complete basic and detailed designs this year, break ground in 2028, and finish construction in 2030.
However, residents have argued that reducing the retention basin would weaken its disaster-prevention function and undermine flood response. They also raised concerns about ecological damage due to reduced green space, the degradation of urban scenery from large buildings, and worsening traffic. Procedural issues were also controversial, with claims that the city did not sufficiently seek resident consent during the project's promotion.