Nowon-gu District Mayor Seo Jun-o. [Nowon-gu]
Nowon-gu District Mayor Seo Jun-o. [Nowon-gu]

Seoul's Nowon-gu announced Monday that it has formally launched its 2027 resident proposal project, a program that lets residents directly suggest local priorities and determine which initiatives receive funding. Projects selected through the process will be reviewed by a resident assembly and a participatory budgeting committee before being incorporated into the 2027 budget plan.

Under the program, residents propose ideas to address everyday inconveniences and promote local development, then vote to set priorities that feed directly into the district's budget.

The district runs the program annually, supporting initiatives ranging from small lifestyle improvements to larger projects aimed at boosting community welfare and local development. Projects that conflict with laws or ordinances, or that involve competing interests or potential disputes among residents, are excluded.

The district will hold preliminary review meetings to assess proposals submitted through each neighborhood office through the end of July. Projects that pass the review will go to resident assemblies in each neighborhood between September and October, where residents will vote to rank them by priority. To broaden participation, the district has moved away from conventional meeting formats, instead linking the assemblies to neighborhood festivals in what it calls a "festival-style resident assembly."

Projects confirmed after review by the participatory budgeting committee will be included in the 2027 budget. The total allocation is planned at 950 million won ($684,000), with individual projects eligible for up to 50 million won each.

The festival-style assemblies are part of a broader push to diversify civic participation in the district. In July, the Hagye 1-dong resident autonomy council became the first in the country to establish a dedicated disability subcommittee, creating a framework for people with and without disabilities to participate together in local governance.

"The greatest value of the resident proposal project is that the people who know their community's problems best are the ones proposing the solutions," District Mayor Seo Jun-o said. "We will actively support resident participation so that projects addressing everyday inconveniences are faithfully reflected in the budget."


ikson@heraldcorp.com