Turning Yongsan Park into housing would break a national promise

Building 20,000 apartments in Yongsan Park could ease Seoul's housing shortage but would require breaking legal and public commitments to preserve the site as green space.

The government is considering building 20,000 apartments in Yongsan Park in central Seoul. With a severe housing shortage worsening market instability, the idea is to secure a large development site in the heart of the capital. Initially, attention focused on the 300,000-square-meter (3.2-million-square-foot) Yongsan Children's Garden, part of the planned 3-million-square-meter park. But Land Minister Kim Yoon-duk said on Friday that the government would consider the entire park for housing.

The urgency behind an all-out push to increase supply is understandable. But converting Seoul's last major green space, with its considerable historical significance, into apartment complexes is another matter entirely.

Yongsan Park was designated as a national park under a special law enacted by the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2007. The legislation embodied a social compact to return the former U.S. military base to the public as green space. Housing construction was proposed then amid serious real estate problems, but policymakers ultimately concluded the site should benefit everyone.

Article 4-2 of the law explicitly prohibits the government from changing the main site's use to purposes other than a park or disposing of it through sale. Building housing there would therefore require amending the law.

Public sentiment is another obstacle. Thousands of opposing comments were submitted over proposed legislation intended to change the park development plan. Large portions of the former U.S. base have yet to complete the return process, while soil contamination and remediation present additional hurdles.

The government needs determination to increase housing supply, but numerical targets cannot take precedence over feasibility. Through its Sept. 7 measures last year and Aug. 13 measures this year, the government has announced plans for a combined 1.6 million homes. Yet almost none will be ready for occupancy during the administration's term.

The priority should instead be accelerating construction of housing already planned and improving implementation. In Seoul, easing unreasonable restrictions on redevelopment and reconstruction projects would be the more practical way to encourage private sector supply.

Kim is scheduled to meet Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Thursday. Oh has insisted that "not even one centimeter" of Yongsan Park should be damaged.