Lawmakers blast approval of supertall tower near Jongmyo Shrine at heritage audit

Sewoon District 4 redevelopment sparks clash at Cultural Heritage Administration audit

Controversy over high-rise permit near UNESCO World Heritage site

Height doubled from 71m to 145m amid developer-profit allegations

Rep. Jo Gye-won of the Democratic Party of Korea [provided by Rep. Jo's office]

A fierce dispute over permits for the Sewoon District 4 redevelopment project — located in front of Jongmyo Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage site — drew sharp criticism at the National Assembly's audit of the Cultural Heritage Administration on Thursday. Ruling party lawmakers attacked what they called a reckless push for high-rise development, while opposition members accused the administration of applying a double standard, citing the Taereung and Korea National University of Arts cases.

The audit, held Thursday by the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, focused on the forced advancement of high-rise construction in Sewoon District 4 and whether a Heritage Impact Assessment should be conducted.

The standoff between the Cultural Heritage Administration and the Seoul Metropolitan Government has escalated beyond a policy disagreement into legal and administrative conflict. In August, the administration filed a police complaint against the Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation for conducting unauthorized drilling on the Sewoon District 4 site without a permit and declared the site off-limits for ground-breaking. When the outgoing Jongno-gu district mayor pushed through a revised project implementation approval, the administration demanded that Seoul issue a corrective order — a demand Seoul rejected — and has since asked the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to exercise its authority to cancel the approval.

Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers sharpened their criticism Thursday, questioning whether the Sewoon District 4 project prioritized developer profits over protection of the World Heritage site. Rep. Jo Gye-won of the Democratic Party, a member of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, raised allegations that developer influence lay behind Seoul's decision to raise the building height limit from 71.9 meters — the ceiling set by the Cultural Heritage Committee in 2014 — to 145 meters under a revised urban improvement plan, more than doubling the original cap.

"When a plan change is this significant — more than doubling the height — verifying the impact on Jongmyo's value as a World Heritage site is an entirely natural and necessary procedure," Jo said.

Jo also said one private developer holds 30 percent of the total area in Sewoon District 4 and stands to reap substantial profits if the floor-area ratio is significantly increased. He further noted that a former Seoul city official who had overseen the Sewoon district redevelopment had, after retirement, set up a one-person research institute and signed a 360 million won ($269,000) consulting contract with that developer — and pressed the Cultural Heritage Administration on whether it was aware of the arrangement.

Cultural Heritage Administration chief Heo Min answers questions from lawmakers at the National Assembly audit of the administration held Thursday. [Yonhap]

Cultural Heritage Administration chief Heo Min responded by invoking both Jongmyo Shrine and the Royal Ancestral Rite and its Music — also a UNESCO-listed heritage — to underscore the case for protection. Heo criticized Seoul's refusal to undergo a heritage impact assessment. On the developer-profit allegations, he said he found them "a point that raises entirely reasonable suspicion, which I find deeply regrettable," but acknowledged that "there are limits to our authority and capacity to directly investigate landowners."

Lawmakers also condemned what they described as Seoul's unilateral approach. Jo said that despite the Cultural Heritage Administration ordering a Heritage Impact Assessment to be completed first in May, Jongno-gu had ignored the directive and issued the approval anyway — with former Jongno-gu District Mayor Jung Mun-heon signing off on his own just before leaving office. "This is an absurd situation in which legal procedures designed to protect national heritage are being rendered meaningless by unilateral administrative acts of a local government," Jo said, urging that extraordinary measures be taken.

Heo said the administration had asked the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to cancel the approval and had also sent an official letter to Seoul, but received no response. He added that he had met personally with Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon four times to make the case, saying the Heritage Impact Assessment "is not a regulation that unconditionally blocks construction — it is meant to ensure that heritage and buildings can coexist in harmony."

Meanwhile, Rep. Lee Jeong-mun of the Democratic Party pushed back against opposition claims of a double standard, which had drawn on the case of a public housing project planned near the Taereung golf course. That project involves building a large apartment complex near Taereung and Gangneung, royal tombs of the Joseon Dynasty that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Royal Tombs, and had raised concerns about damage to the heritage landscape. Opposition lawmakers had argued that the Cultural Heritage Administration's conditional approval of that project showed it was holding Sewoon District 4 to a stricter standard.

"The Taereung golf course project accepted UNESCO's recommendation to conduct a Heritage Impact Assessment, went through a conditional approval by the National Heritage Committee, and submitted a report to UNESCO," Lee said. "By contrast, the fundamental difference with Sewoon District 4 is that Seoul and the Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation are refusing to conduct a Heritage Impact Assessment at all."

terry@heraldcorp.com