As delays drag on in the redevelopment of Sewoon District 4, People Power Party members of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee visited Jongmyo Shrine to call for the project to move forward. They said the project has been left adrift after repeated deferrals of a review of plans to preserve buried cultural heritage, compounded by a dispute over a world heritage impact assessment.
Reps. Cho Eun-hee, Lee Seok-ki, Kim Seung-soo and Yoon Yong-geun of the People Power Party visited the area around Jongmyo Shrine on the 15th to urge that the Sewoon District 4 project proceed. They argued that the repeated deferrals should end and the buried heritage preservation plan should be approved without delay, saying, "The cost of the delay falls on residents and the public."
The review of the buried heritage preservation plan was deferred twice this year, in August and September. In August it was put off on the grounds that a revision to the project implementation plan needed to be finalized before a new review, and in September it was deferred again so that the location and methods of preserving the remains could be examined on site.
The National Heritage Committee is scheduled to visit Sewoon District 4 on the 16th to conduct an on-site inspection of the preservation plan. The project operator, Seoul Housing & Urban Development Corporation (SH), carried out detailed excavation surveys from 2022 to 2024 and submitted a preservation plan that calls for relocating and restoring part of the remains and creating an exhibition space.
The lawmakers also argued that the Korea Heritage Service administrator should withdraw an order requiring a world heritage impact assessment for a project located outside a protected zone. They demanded an explanation of why different standards were applied to the Taereung Country Club site and the Sewoon district, stressing that cultural heritage should not be held hostage to political disputes.
"Sewoon District 4 lies beyond the 100-meter boundary that defines a historic and cultural environment preservation zone, while the Taereung CC development site overlaps a full 13% with the protected zone of the Tae and Gangneung royal tombs, a world heritage site, yet that project is being pushed through at full speed," they said.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Korea Heritage Service also remain at odds over the shrine's views. The city explained the sightlines using balloons floated at the height of the buildings planned for Sewoon District 4, and said the project site does not fall within the boundaries of the heritage zone. Cho said, "Today, from inside Jongmyo, I saw the balloons marking the building height for myself, and they did not block the views of the shrine at all."
The Korea Heritage Service maintains that the effect on the historic landscape and on the site's world heritage value needs to be reviewed. "At the time of inscription, ICOMOS recommended avoiding high-rise buildings that could have a negative effect on the landscape," an official at the agency said. "With the change in height, the need for a more in-depth review has grown."