Residents storm district mayor's office over proposed W240m salary for public redevelopment chief

A proposal to pay the chair of a residents' representative council — the equivalent of a union president in a public redevelopment project — 15 million won ($10,200) a month has sparked a sharp dispute at a Seoul redevelopment site. The figure is roughly three times the monthly salary recommended by the relevant industry association for union heads. SH, which is overseeing the project, has said it cannot authorize the payment because it was never agreed upon with the corporation. Residents are now calling for more active oversight by SH and the local government to preserve the original purpose of the public redevelopment scheme.

According to industry sources, the residents' representative council of the Bondong public redevelopment project in Noryangjin, Dongjak-gu — located along the Han River — is holding its first general assembly Saturday to vote on agenda items including the council's operating rules, budget, and salaries for the chair and full-time staff. It is the first assembly since the council chair was elected in June.

The most contentious item is a proposal to set the chair's monthly salary at 15 million won. The agenda also includes a plan to pay the preparatory committee chair 12 million won per month — totaling 696 million won over 58 months, from April 2021, shortly after Bondong was designated a second-round public redevelopment candidate site by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, through June this year when the council chair was elected — and to formally fix the residents' representative council chair's salary at 15 million won going forward.

On an annualized basis, the chair's salary would come to 180 million won, and with a bonus set at 400 percent of the monthly salary, total annual compensation would reach 240 million won. The vice chair would receive a monthly salary of 4.3 million won with the same 400 percent bonus, bringing annual pay to 68.8 million won.

Under the standard salary guidelines published earlier this year by the Korea Housing Redevelopment Project Association, the recommended monthly salary for a union head at an association with 1,000 or more members is 5.28 million won. The recommended figures by membership size are: 4.41 million won for fewer than 300 members, 4.64 million won for fewer than 500, 4.87 million won for fewer than 700, and 5.07 million won for fewer than 1,000.

The residents' representative council is the body that gathers residents' opinions and coordinates with the project operator in a public redevelopment scheme. Unlike conventional private redevelopment projects — where a residents' association is formed and its elected head directly leads the project — public redevelopment places a public entity such as SH in full charge of execution, with the residents' council playing a supporting and consultative role.

Given that structure, residents argue the proposed compensation far exceeds the standard guidelines even though the council chair's actual workload is considerably lighter than that of a private association head. They also warn that inflated personnel costs will ultimately be charged to the redevelopment budget, directly increasing residents' financial contributions and potentially eroding the cost benefits that public redevelopment was meant to deliver.

Owner A, a property holder within the Bondong public redevelopment zone, said the project had moved forward as a public redevelopment scheme because residents trusted that a public operator would manage it transparently and move quickly. "There were voices in favor of private redevelopment too, but we went with the public route because we trusted the public operator to manage things transparently and move quickly," A said. "It feels like that control is breaking down."

SH said both the general assembly and its agenda items were decided without any prior discussion with the corporation, and that budget items such as the chair's salary cannot be reflected regardless of how the assembly votes. "We have not been officially notified by the residents' representative council about the contents, but after becoming aware of the issue we sent a separate official letter in advance notifying them that any item not previously agreed upon with us cannot be incorporated into the project even if it passes," an SH official said.

SH added that if an excessive compensation plan or budget is pushed through without prior consultation, it will be unable to conclude the project implementation agreement — a mandatory step for the public redevelopment project to proceed.

Against this backdrop, some property owners visited Dongjak-gu district office on Tuesday to meet with the district mayor, urging strong administrative guidance and active oversight at the local government level over what they called an unreasonable budget proposal by the council. A district office official said there are no separate regulations stipulating how much the chair or others should be paid, and that compensation is ultimately a matter for residents to decide, which limits the district's ability to intervene directly. The official added, however, that SH had made its position clear during the meeting — that it cannot sign the project implementation agreement if the agenda items proceed as proposed — and that this had been explained to the residents present.

With both the local government and SH consistently maintaining that unapproved budget items cannot be incorporated into the project, the proposed compensation package is unlikely to move forward in practice regardless of how the assembly votes. However, if disagreements with SH delay the signing of the project implementation agreement, it could become an obstacle to the swift progress that residents had expected from the Bondong public redevelopment project.

The Bondong public redevelopment project covers a 51,696-square-meter site at 256 Noryangjinno, Dongjak-gu, and calls for 11 residential buildings of up to 41 above-ground floors and three below-ground floors, comprising 1,080 units along with community infrastructure. The site is adjacent to the Han River and within walking distance of Noryangjin and Nodeul stations on subway Line 9. Following the designation of the redevelopment zone last October, SH was appointed as the project operator in November and work has been under way since.