Gangnam-gu Opens 49-Space Public Parking Lot on Idle Land Near Sinsa Station

Gangnam-gu (district mayor Cho Seong-myeong) has opened a 49-space temporary public parking lot on idle land in front of Exit 3 of Sinsa Station, with operations beginning June 1.

The project puts vacant private land to public use as a parking facility until development begins, easing the parking crunch in the transit-oriented area while increasing the land's public value.

The new "Nonhyeon-dong 17 Temporary Off-Street Public Parking Lot" spans six lots — centered on 17 Nonhyeon-dong — covering 1,971.2 square meters. The site has sat empty since an existing building was demolished in 2023, pending new construction. After negotiations with the landowner, the district signed a lease agreement in March, then spent roughly two months on parking lot construction and safety facility installation. The lot will operate through June 30, 2029 — a period of three years and one month.

The lot primarily serves nearby residents and full-time workers through a resident-priority parking system. During hours when assigned spaces go unused, the lot also operates as shared parking open to the general public. Shared parking currently runs on a trial basis on weekends and public holidays from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., with plans to expand shared hours to weekdays based on usage data.

Shared parking users can check available spaces and times, make reservations, and pay through the mobile app "Parking Friends." By combining resident-priority and shared parking, the lot maximizes use of available spaces by time slot, improving efficiency within a limited footprint.

Located near Sinsa Station — a dense commercial and business hub with heavy foot traffic — the lot is expected to ease parking difficulties in one of the district's highest-demand areas. Cleaning up a neglected vacant site also improves the urban streetscape, and securing everyday parking infrastructure without a large-scale land purchase adds to the project's significance.

The district has consistently worked to expand public parking by tapping private idle land. In April last year, it opened its first such lot in Nonhyeon-dong with 45 spaces; in June, it added 30 spaces on Garosugil in Sinsa-dong; and in December, it added four more on a small idle site in Samsung-dong.

Including the latest 49 spaces, the total number of parking spaces secured through private idle-land use has grown to 128.

"In dense urban areas, securing new parking sites takes considerable time and money, so using pre-development idle land as a public facility can be an effective alternative," district mayor Cho said. "We will continue to work closely with private landowners to expand parking that residents can actually feel, and to use the city's limited space and budget as efficiently as possible."