Project driven by residents' voices through on-site district mayor office turns neglected, unsafe area into a livable community space
Seoul's Seongbuk-gu district has converted a site long blighted by abandoned and aging unauthorized homes in the Jeongneung-dong area into a shared parking lot, aiming to improve residential conditions and ease a chronic parking shortage.
The district held a completion ceremony for the Jeongneung-dong shared parking lot on Friday at the site near 257-27 Jeongneung-dong.
The facility covers approximately 732 square meters and offers 14 parking spaces. It will operate as a resident-priority parking lot, with spaces allocated annually to nearby residents through a lottery.
The site had long been densely packed with abandoned and dilapidated unauthorized housing, leaving it in poor sanitary and public-safety condition. Residents had endured persistent problems including trash, foul odors and concerns about nighttime crime, and calls for improvements had been raised repeatedly through community consultations, including sessions at the on-site district mayor office.
Responding to those longstanding demands, the district purchased and cleared eight lots where abandoned and aging unauthorized structures had stood, then developed the shared parking facility. The project is expected to ease parking congestion, reduce illegal parking on side streets and contribute to a safer, more pleasant residential environment.
About 70 people attended the completion ceremony, including local residents, Seongbuk-gu officials, and Seoul city and district lawmakers, who celebrated the opening and toured the new facility.
"The Jeongneung-dong shared parking lot is a project that has reclaimed a space that caused residents years of inconvenience and complaints and returned it to them as a place for everyday life," district mayor Lee Seung-ro said. "The voices we heard through the on-site district mayor office have borne fruit, and we will continue to expand community-oriented infrastructure to improve residents' quality of life."
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