The Supreme Court ruled that the administrative action by Yeonggwang County, South Jeolla, to deny a new cattle barn 1 kilometers from the nearest village falls within the local government's authority and raises no issue.
The Supreme Court's Third Division (Presiding Justice Lee Suk-yeon) said on the 21st that on the 9th of last month it overturned the appellate ruling that had found Yeonggwang County must grant a building permit in a suit by four people, including a person surnamed Kim, seeking to cancel the rejection of their building permit application against the Yeonggwang county chief, and sent the case back to the Gwangju High Court.
In March 2016, Kim and others applied for a building permit to construct a chicken farm with 10 broiler houses, with a total floor area of 13,500 square meters (about 4,090 pyeong), on a site in Yeonggwang County measuring 28,957 square meters (about 8,774 pyeong). Yeonggwang County rejected the application, and after two rounds of administrative litigation, the rejection was finalized by the Supreme Court.
Unable to build the chicken farm, Kim and others in April 2021 applied to Yeonggwang County for a building permit to construct four buildings on the site, including a cattle barn and a manure shed, totaling 8,225 square meters (about 2,492 pyeong). In June 2022, Yeonggwang County rejected the application, saying, "This is the same site where the broiler house permit was previously rejected, and the cattle barn and manure shed are also expected to cause resident harm due to odor."
Kim and others then filed another administrative lawsuit. During the trial, they said, "The nearest village is more than 1 kilometers from the application site, so the 'expected resident harm' is nothing more than a vague concern," and argued, "Chicken farms and livestock barns differ in scale, type of livestock, and odor, but Yeonggwang County made no assessment at all, departing from and abusing its discretion." Kim and others had previously planned to raise 120,000 chickens at the chicken farm, but planned to raise 580 cattle at the cattle barn.
A reservoir is located 40 meters from the site, and a nearby stream connects to a river and farmland. A well used by residents for domestic water is 600 meters away. Kim and others said, "The well is used for agricultural water, not drinking water, so there is no possibility of direct harm to village residents from pollution by livestock manure and wastewater."
The first trial dismissed the claims by Kim and others. The first trial panel said, "There is a concern that livestock wastewater and manure from the barn could flow into the well through the stream," and added, "Some nearby residents do not have tap water facilities and use only the well for drinking and domestic water, so contamination would be expected to cause considerable harm."
The appellate court ordered the cancellation of Yeonggwang County's disposition rejecting the building permit application. The appellate panel said, "There are 600 premium Korean beef, known as hanwoo, barns operating within Yeonggwang County, and in the past five years there has not been a single civil complaint or administrative action due to livestock wastewater," adding, "The likelihood of water pollution from the outflow of livestock manure and wastewater appears very low."
The Supreme Court, however, sided with Yeonggwang County. The court said, "Once environmental pollution such as odor dispersion and water quality deterioration occurs, it is almost impossible to reverse," and added, "If many local residents have engaged in farming for a long time and most are elderly, making it difficult to move their homes elsewhere, the adverse effects caused by environmental pollution are all the more serious."
It went on to find that "as an administrative authority, Yeonggwang County has the authority and duty to rigorously review environmental-related building permits under the relevant laws and regulations so that all residents in the area can enjoy a healthy life."