Yongin in Gyeonggi Province said on the 27th it will push to build a public integrated culture and welfare center on the former special school site in Seongbok-dong, Suji-gu.
The site where the center is being pursued was where the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education sought to establish a special school for people with disabilities in 2014. But as the special school was built elsewhere, it remained vacant land for a long time. The site measures 10,627 square meters (about 3,214 pyeong).
Yongin Mayor Lee Sang-il moved immediately after taking office in the eighth popularly elected term to begin procedures to explore ways to use the site. First, in Dec. 2022, the city changed the school land to a public government office and cultural facility site to block the possibility of indiscriminate development.
After that, Yongin in Sept. 2023 drew up a plan to promote construction of the Seongbok-dong integrated culture center and in 2024 asked the Local Government Research Institute to conduct a feasibility study. Local residents also called for an integrated cultural facility to be built on the site.
However, 11 of the 13 lots on the site are private land, and the land compensation cost, estimated at about 37.1 billion won, is large, so the project's economic feasibility was rated low.
In response, starting in June 2025 Yongin, together with the Yongin Policy Research Institute, has been reviewing ways to raise the project's benefit-to-expense value. The city has now requested a second supplement from the institute to prepare project plans that improve economic feasibility, such as creating a complex that includes public offices and culture, arts, education, welfare, and sports facilities. Once the institute's research results come out, the city plans to push the project forward based on them.
This year, Yongin aims to consult on tenant facilities and pursue changes to urban planning facilities, carry out a feasibility study, and pass the central investment review in 2028.
Yongin Mayor Lee Sang-il said, "We must end the 'false hope' for residents regarding the former special school site in Seongbok-dong," adding, "As we clearly presented the direction of the site in the eighth popularly elected term, in the ninth term we must present a roadmap that shows facilities residents want will be installed so the future can be anticipated."