Seoul's western driving test center to become high-tech industry hub

The site of the western driving license test center in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul is set to be redeveloped as a hub for advanced industries. Once floated as a candidate site for urban housing supply under the Moon Jae-in administration, the housing plan has been effectively shelved, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government has launched a new development process.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday it will hold a public notice and resident briefing session Thursday on the draft district unit plan and strategic environmental impact assessment for the western driving license test center site.

"Of the total site area of 75,111 square meters, we are reviewing a plan to downsize and relocate the existing driving test center functions to about 25,900 square meters, with the remaining roughly 50,000 square meters of usable land to be developed for advanced industries and functions supporting the Digital Media City," a Seoul city official said.

The official added that no specific industry sector had been finalized, but said the city had in mind attracting future-oriented advanced industries such as research facilities related to future mobility and related industrial functions.

The introduction of MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) functions linked to the Digital Media City is also under consideration. City officials noted that the DMC area currently lacks mid-to-large-scale international conference and convention facilities, causing demand to flow to venues such as Coex in Jamsil and Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. The city is also reviewing plans to bring in an international conference hall or convention-type facility to support the DMC's business functions.

The site was included in the government's Aug. 4, 2020 housing supply measures. At the time, the government designated it as a candidate site for housing supply along with 18 other idle urban plots in Seoul, including the Taereung Country Club in Nowon-gu, Camp Kim in Yongsan-gu, and the Seoul Regional Office of Supply. Given its prime location in northwestern Seoul adjacent to Sangam DMC, the site was seen as one with significant supply potential, and the planned supply volume was set at about 3,500 units.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government had at one point also been pursuing plans to use the site for housing. As part of efforts to secure the Songhyeon-dong site in Jongno-gu — formerly owned by Korean Air — the city explored a land swap with Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH), with LH subsequently discussed as a potential developer of public rental housing on the driving test center site.

However, concerns over traffic congestion and overdevelopment, as well as controversy over the erosion of the area's self-sustaining functions, surfaced immediately after the announcement, drawing sustained opposition from local residents and the municipal government. Seoul eventually accepted those objections, and the housing supply plan was dropped.

Observers have also noted that when sites previously earmarked for housing are converted to other uses, the government needs to clearly present alternative supply volumes. Among the major sites cited as urban housing supply candidates under the Aug. 4 measures, the only one that has actually resulted in housing supply is the roughly 1,200-unit development on unsold land in Magok, carried out by Seoul Housing and Communities Corp. (SH).

Park Hap-su, an adjunct professor at Konkuk University's Graduate School of Real Estate, said, "If cases where sites included in supply measures are repurposed keep repeating, public confidence in those measures will inevitably erode," adding that "since the follow-through process matters more than the announcement itself when it comes to housing supply measures, the government needs to clearly explain alternative supply plans and the status of ongoing efforts."