35,000 homes in Yongsan? Seoul mayor vows to protect Yongsan Park

The children's garden site inside Yongsan Park in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, seen Tuesday afternoon. [Herald DB]

As the government surveys the entirety of Yongsan Park for potential housing sites, the center of gravity for Seoul's housing supply is shifting toward the Yongsan area. If development discussions advance to include the Yongsan International Business District, Camp Kim and the US military transportation depot, supply capacity within Yongsan-gu alone could exceed 35,000 units.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has pushed back sharply, vowing to "protect Yongsan Park no matter what," and opposition from residents and environmental groups is growing. The park presents a particularly complex set of obstacles — any housing development would require amending existing legislation, and the site is also entangled in issues of soil contamination and cleanup costs, making a smooth path to actual housing supply unlikely.

Up to 20,000 units floated for Yongsan Park; Oh, Kim to meet Thursday

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, four key sites in the Yongsan area are under discussion in connection with large-scale housing supply: Yongsan Park, the Yongsan International Business District, Camp Kim and the US military transportation depot.

The most contentious of these is Yongsan Park, which spans roughly 3 million square meters. The government had initially been examining the approximately 300,000-square-meter Yongsan Children's Garden as a candidate site, but the scope of the debate widened after Land Minister Kim Yun-deok said the entire park would be assessed for buildable land. Market analysts estimate that high-density development on a portion of the park, including the children's garden, could yield around 20,000 units.

Yongsan Park was designated a national park under a special act enacted in 2007, meaning any housing development would first require amending that law. If the National Assembly passes an amendment to the Special Act on the Creation of Yongsan Park on Thursday, momentum for Yongsan development could accelerate. The ministry clarified that the proposed amendment "has nothing to do with building housing on the main Yongsan Park site," adding that it concerns "partially creating a park on returned land and adjusting the green-space ratio on scattered parcels."

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks to reporters outside his office at Seoul City Hall on Tuesday after meeting with People Power Party lawmaker Kwon Young-se to discuss housing supply plans for Yongsan Park and the Yongsan International Business District. [Yonhap]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has mounted strong resistance. At a real estate forum hosted by the People Power Party's Seoul chapter Wednesday morning, Oh reiterated his opposition, saying he would "protect Yongsan Park no matter what."

Oh criticized the approach, saying that "overturning the legal principles the state has upheld and destroying assets that future generations deserve to enjoy — all for the sake of short-term results — is an act that undermines the credibility of governance itself." He is expected to convey his opposition to housing development in the park when he meets Land Minister Kim on Thursday.

Environmental groups ask: 'Are we telling young people to live on contaminated land?' Cleanup costs also a flashpoint

Beyond the Seoul city government's opposition, the path to actual housing supply is lined with procedural hurdles. When the possibility of building homes inside Yongsan Park was raised, local residents placed hundreds of funeral wreaths near the children's garden to signal their protest. A petition filed with the National Assembly's electronic petition system on Friday — calling for a halt to the special act amendment and the housing supply push on the park site — surpassed 10,000 signatures within four days of being posted.

Resistance from environmental and civic groups is also intensifying. When the park was temporarily opened to the public in 2022, advocacy groups accused the government of concealing the extent of contamination and forcing the opening, and filed a public audit request against the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of National Defense. Contaminants detected above permissible levels included dioxin, a highly toxic carcinogen; total petroleum hydrocarbons; and heavy metals such as arsenic, copper and lead — grounds on which these groups say housing development on the site is unacceptable.

Green Korea United issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the housing supply plan as destructive to greenbelt areas and contrary to climate-crisis response efforts, and is preparing a follow-up statement.

"Are we telling young people and newlyweds to move into a place where contamination problems have not even been resolved?" a Green Korea United official said. "We will respond on all fronts to the government's moves to conceal the contamination and dangers of Yongsan Park and exploit it for housing supply."

Funeral wreaths opposing public rental housing development are placed in front of the children's garden inside Yongsan Park in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. [Herald DB]

The question of who bears the cost of future soil remediation — and what role the US military plays — is also expected to become a source of controversy.

"If serious contamination is confirmed in environmental surveys, the polluter-pays principle would require the US military to cover the cleanup costs — but there has never been a case where USFK directly paid for remediation when returning a base site," an industry official said. "The enormous cost could end up falling on the government."

Up to 45,000 units if western Seoul Station area included; Yongsan-gu braces for supply surge

Taken together, the government's current supply plans point to what could be described as a saturation of new housing across the Yongsan area.

The most clearly defined of the sites is the Yongsan International Business District. When the government unveiled its urban housing supply plan on Jan. 29, it proposed expanding the district's residential component from the originally planned roughly 6,000 units to 10,000. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has proposed 8,000 units as a compromise, citing concerns over commercial and office functions and traffic load, and negotiations with the central government over the final supply figure are ongoing.

Camp Kim, located northwest of Seoul Station, is also included in the government's supply plan. The government has decided to provide 2,500 units at the approximately 48,000-square-meter site — 1,100 more than the existing plan of 1,400 units.

The US military transportation depot site, for which no supply plan has been finalized, adds another variable. The roughly 79,000-square-meter parcel — about 1.6 times the size of Camp Kim — was rezoned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2024 from a second-class general residential zone to a commercial zone as part of a district-unit plan revision for the Dongbu Ichon-dong area. With development now permitted up to a height of 70 meters, industry estimates suggest the site could accommodate more than 3,000 units if residential use is included.

Extending the scope further to the western Seoul Station area would add a substantial supply. Major projects there — including the Segye integrated zone (2,714 units), Cheongpa Districts 1 and 2 (2,548 units), the Cheongpa-dong 1-ga transit-oriented long-term jeonse housing (741 units) and the Wonhyo-ro 1-ga transit-oriented long-term jeonse housing (2,743 units) — combine for 8,746 units.

Adding an initial estimate of roughly 1,500 units from Cheongpa District 3, a candidate site under the fast-track integrated planning scheme, brings the supply potential in the Segye, Cheongpa and Wonhyo-ro areas alone to about 10,246 units. Combined with the roughly 35,500 units across the four Yongsan axes, the total could reach as many as approximately 45,000 units.

However, if all these projects proceed simultaneously, the burden on infrastructure — including roads, schools and water and sewage systems — could grow significantly. The Seoul Metropolitan Government's cautious stance on expanding the residential component of the Yongsan International Business District stems in part from the need to account for the traffic and infrastructure pressures that would come with a large influx of new residents.

quq@heraldcorp.com
lucky@heraldcorp.com