Mapo District said on the 12th that the Seoul High Court's ruling on the "lawsuit seeking to cancel the notice of the site decision for the metropolitan resource recovery facility" "reconfirmed that residents' challenges were justified from the perspective of law and procedure."
On this day, the Administrative Division 9-3 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Kim Hyeong-bae) dismissed the city of Seoul's appeal at 2 p.m. in the "lawsuit to cancel the notice of the site decision for the metropolitan resource recovery facility" filed by Mapo District residents against the city.
The court ruled, "There is a defect in the composition of the site selection committee, and there is also a procedural defect in selecting a specialized research institution for the feasibility study of the candidate site," adding, "Due to procedural defects, the unlawful disposition is canceled and the claim is upheld."
The lawsuit began after the city of Seoul in 2023 issued a notice deciding to site a new metropolitan incineration facility with a capacity of 1,000 tons per day near the Mapo resource recovery facility, and 1,850 local residents argued procedural illegality. The first trial sided with Mapo residents.
Seoul then filed an appeal brief in January last year, but the appellate court, like the first trial, found procedural illegality in the process of deciding the site for the new incinerator.
Park Kang-su, the Mapo District chief, said, "This appellate ruling reconfirmed that Mapo residents' challenges were justified from the perspective of law and procedure," adding, "The greater the public interest of waste policy, the more legality and resident participation must be a prerequisite, and that principle has been affirmed."