"Of the 200 property owners who were waiting for redevelopment, more than 50 have died. Those who remain have lost even their rental income after tenants moved out, and the wait keeps getting longer."
That is how Kim Jong-gil, head of the residents' representative council for Sewoon District 4, described the open-ended delay in an interview with the Seoul Economic Daily on the 18th. Twenty-two years have passed since the council was formed in 2004, and many of the owners have since entered old age. The site, where demolition is complete, has sat empty for three years. With Seoul city government and the Korea Heritage Service at odds over the project's impact on views of Jongmyo Shrine, and with a review of plans to preserve buried cultural heritage on hold, residents cannot even estimate when construction might begin.
On the 16th, the residents' council sent an appeal to members of the buried heritage subcommittee of the Cultural Heritage Committee, asking them to conclude the preservation review quickly. According to Kim, owners took out loans of 200 million to 300 million won, and in some cases up to 1 billion won, depending on the size of their stakes, about 20 years ago as the project was about to get under way, and have been paying interest ever since. They had expected to repay the money as soon as the project was completed. "Some people could not keep up with the interest and left after taking a cash settlement," he said. "This was a project we once expected to be finished by now, and the goal has become simply breaking ground."
Financing costs are also mounting at the project level. About 800 billion won has been spent on Sewoon District 4, including compensation for building demolition and cash settlements. Interest on 650 billion won of that amount runs to about 1.4 billion won a month, or 16.8 billion won a year.
In the neighboring Sewoon District 2, which was hit just as hard by the review of the project's visual impact, the immediate problem is the safety of aging buildings. A Sewoon District 2 merchant surnamed Kim, in his 60s, who has run a business there for 20 years, said water often leaks in on days of heavy rain, and that neither the building owners nor the tenants waiting for redevelopment are in a position to spend large sums on repairs. "Patch jobs have reached their limit," the merchant said. Lee Young-geun, head of the preparatory committee for Sewoon District 2, said the timber inside some tile-roofed houses has rotted and termites have appeared, significantly affecting residents' quality of life. "There was a fire in January last year, but there is no fire lane, so there was no way for fire trucks to get in," he said. Lee stressed repeatedly that the site is designated for multi-unit housing, that there are no plans to build towers of 40 stories or more, and that the work will be done in a way that takes the surrounding views into account.
The Seoul city government is pursuing the redevelopment by expanding green space and public facilities in exchange for securing the project's viability. For Sewoon District 4, the city allowed taller buildings and a lower building-to-land ratio in order to create about 13,000 square meters of open green space. The Korea Heritage Service, by contrast, says a World Heritage impact assessment is needed to examine how the change in height would affect the historic setting of Jongmyo Shrine and its value as a World Heritage site. The review of the buried heritage preservation plan for Sewoon District 4 was deferred in August on the grounds that it required reconsideration after the revised project implementation plan was finalized, and again in September because a field survey was needed on the location and method of preserving the remains.
Residents want the dispute over building heights separated from the review of the preservation plan for the remains. The residents' council said it has completed a detailed excavation survey of a site of about 31,000 square meters and has planned an exhibition space that would preserve features such as a gateway and drainage channels by reducing commercial floor space. "We are asking them to review the preservation plan we submitted, on its own merits," Kim said. "Residents' property rights and a minimum quality of life should not be threatened any longer."