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| People walk down a slope at Namsan Park on Mount Nam in central Seoul, Oct. 7. Mount Nam is one of 76 public park areas in Seoul that could become less accessible to the public once a new law on land ownership kicks in next year. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
76 public parks in Seoul are nearing their expiration date
By Lee Suh-yoon
Like many Seoul citizens, Choi Young, 21, enjoys hiking in the city. His twice-a-month trek up Mount Inwang ― just next to his home in northwestern Seoul ― is refreshing for both his lungs and mind. Weaving through the canopied trail feels like a meditation exercise, helping him find much-needed respite from the concrete jungle below.
But starting next July, public use of such nature trails or parklands could "expire."
The problem dates back to 1999, when the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of a landowner in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. The owner had a plot of land on which the local government decided to build a school. Once it was reserved for an urban planning facility, the owner could not sell it off or develop the land for a private project. The school never materialized and the owner filed and won a constitutional suit based on property ownership rights.
Following the court ruling, lawmakers revised the Urban Planning Law to allow these public facility designations to be lifted ― starting July 2020 ― from sites where projects are not realized within 20 years.
According to Choi, an activist at the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM), the legislative response to the court ruling was "exaggerated," as the change was applied to all urban planning facilities ― including public parklands and nature reserves.
Most public parks and nature reserves don't require special landscaping, containing self-regenerative flora and well-trodden paths. But under a new legal provision, such parks will be considered "unfinished" urban planning facilities if the local government hasn't fully acquired all the land on site from private landowners or the central government.
This poses a problem for some 19,000 parks and nature trails around the country. If the public park designation is lifted from privately owned sections of parks next year, the green enclaves could be breached by real estate forces, and landowners will attain legal grounds to block visitors. In Seoul alone, public access could be restricted to 117 square kilometers of green space ― 85 percent of the city's total park space ― in 76 parks. This includes popular hiking trails on Inwang, Nam, Gwanak and Bukhan mountains.
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| A hiker looks at banners put up by landowners at Guryong Park in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Oct. 10. The banners claim the trails are closed due to the city government's failure to respect the landowners' property rights as a deadline approaches for the lifting of its public park designation. Yonhap |
Long-buried conflicts between landowners and local governments are bobbing to the surface as the deadline approaches. Last week, private landowners of Guryong Park in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, caused a stir by blocking visitors from popular park trails.
"The city should respect 1999 Constitutional Court ruling and purchase all of Guryong Park or at least the land around the hiking trail by June 30 next year," they demanded. "We landowners have been providing these hiking trails for free for the last 35 years."
The Seoul city government does not have to acquire all the 117 square kilometers to prevent such trouble in the capital, just the 40 square kilometers in the hands of private landowners. The remainder belongs to the central government, which gave the city government a 10-year extension on the July deadline. It did not, however, accept the local government's plea to simply exempt the land inside public parks from the new expiration clause.
To buy all 40 square kilometers, the city says it would need at least 16 trillion won ($13.5 billion). It will first buy 2.3 square kilometers in the next two years by issuing 1.5 trillion won in municipal bonds. The remaining 38 square kilometers ― along with the central government's land ― will be given a whole new designation called "urban nature park zone" that will override the July 2020 expiration and keep the areas protected as public parks.
The new designation conveniently eliminates the city's legal obligation to purchase or financially compensate for publicly used land. In its press release Monday, the city claimed it would still compensate private landowners who will soon have their land tied down under this stronger eco-space designation.
"It is the city's principle to preserve as much of its parks as possible in the face of the rule on expiration of unfinished public facilities, making the new designation of the urban nature park zone inevitable in order to pass down these parks to future generations," said Kwon Ki-ook, head of the city's urban planning division. "The new designations will be followed up by policies designed to minimize losses for the landowners, such as the existing tax breaks and financial compensation in the future."
City officials, however, refused to comment on the exact amount or calculation method for the promised compensation, saying it would "depend on individual negotiations and the scope of the city's budget."
The measures will come into effect early next year, after feedback from the city council and the urban planning committee. Environmental activists welcomed the plan, saying it closely resembled the proposal an outside working group has been drafting with local governments.
"I think the plan benefits some landowners too, as they face a viable risk of their land being rezoned as a protected green belt right after July 2020. In such a case, all they can do with the land is keep paying taxes, instead of getting the tax breaks and financial compensation offered here," said Choi, who also took part in the discussions.
Including the mountains concentrated on the city's outer rim, the average green park space per resident in Seoul is 14 square meters. Assuming the 40 square kilometers of privately owned land scattered across the city's parkland and nature reserves is lost, this number drops to 9.9 square meters, barely above the WHO minimum standard.
Choi says green woodlands and parks should be expanded in Seoul to combat the effects of climate change.
"Climate change can really be felt in Seoul these days. I mean we've never had so many typhoons batter us in one season," Choi said. "As the number of natural disasters increases, the role of urban woodland in blocking floods or landslides will only grow bigger."
