Yongsan Children's Garden left out of Aug. 13 housing plan as government, Seoul clash over site

Questions are mounting over why Yongsan Children's Garden — long floated as a candidate site for new housing — was left out of the government's Aug. 13 housing supply package. The government signaled that the site could still be included in future supply plans through consultations with local authorities, but acknowledged it had not reached an agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Bridging the gap between the two sides over how to use the site is shaping up as a key challenge for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

As a result, several high-profile candidate sites — including Yongsan Children's Garden and the Naegok-dong area in Seocho — were left out of the Aug. 13 package. "This was essentially a plan that excluded the areas the market had been watching, including greenbelt zones within Seoul," one real estate expert said. "The government appears to have felt the political cost of pushing ahead was too high, given opposition from residents and local governments."

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport had in fact been reviewing Yongsan Children's Garden — a portion of the broader Yongsan Park — as a candidate site to secure additional housing supply.

First Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim I-tak said Friday on MBC Radio's "Kim Jong-bae's Morning Focus" that Yongsan Park covers 3 million square meters while the Children's Garden portion amounts to about 300,000 square meters. "We will consult with the Seoul Metropolitan Government on possible uses for the Children's Garden," he said. Kim added that beyond the Children's Garden, other parcels returned by the United States — including Camp Kim and former embassy residential compounds — are also available, and that because these sites are in highly desirable locations, converting them into housing is one option worth considering for future generations.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government, however, sees things differently.

Seoul argues that building housing on the Children's Garden site would reduce green space and erode the long-term quality of residential life within the city. At a briefing on the day the package was announced, the city said, "Using green space — an asset for future generations — for housing supply should be a last resort," and urged the government to "carefully consider the supply effects of redevelopment projects, Seoul's urban planning, and the value of green space conservation when reviewing new housing sites."

Seoul maintains that Yongsan Park can only preserve its value if it is protected in its entirety at its current scale.

Yongsan Park carries the history of returning to citizens after 120 years as a US military base. If housing were built on even a portion of the site — the Children's Garden — Seoul's plan to gradually expand the park's boundaries by incorporating the National Museum of Korea, Yongsan Family Park and other adjacent areas would be derailed.

According to Seoul's 2021 master plan for managing the area surrounding Yongsan Park, the park sits at the intersection of the north-south green corridor linking Bukhansan, Namsan and Gwanaksan, and the east-west waterfront axis along the Han River — making it the last undeveloped green space remaining in central Seoul. Critics warn that allowing apartments there would compromise the site's public character: residents of a private complex could effectively privatize a national park, and concerns over obstructed views would also arise.

The intensifying effects of climate change are also lending weight to Seoul's position, as the value of Yongsan Park as climate infrastructure continues to grow.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said at a city real estate forum on Aug. 6 that "a city of 10 million people is suffering through extreme heat waves driven by climate change," and that "maintaining and managing green space to the greatest extent possible is a duty I must fulfill as mayor of Seoul." He made clear his opposition to housing development on the site, saying, "The Yongsan Park site must be preserved in its entirety and passed on to future generations."

Green space is often called the "air conditioner of the city" for its cooling effect. Trees in parks block direct sunlight and radiant heat through their canopies, while their leaves lower surrounding temperatures. As leaves release moisture through transpiration — converting water inside the plant into vapor — they absorb heat from the surrounding air, bringing temperatures down.

Temperature differences across Seoul districts, driven by varying levels of green coverage, support this point. An analysis of Seoul's 25 autonomous districts conducted by the Korea Forest Service's National Institute of Forest Science using Landsat satellite imagery and urban forest maps on Aug. 29, 2024, found that the five districts with the highest urban forest coverage had average surface temperatures of 34.9 to 36.2 degrees Celsius — up to 4.2 degrees cooler than the five districts with the lowest coverage, which recorded 36.9 to 39.1 degrees.

Yongsan-gu, despite sitting at the heart of Seoul, has relatively limited green space. According to a report released in June by the Seoul office of Greenpeace East Asia, Yongsan-gu ranked 14th among Seoul's 25 districts in per-capita green space, at 12.75 square meters per person — placing it in the middle of the pack. For Yongsan residents, the prospect of losing even more of an already scarce green resource to housing development is unlikely to be welcome.

Even if the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Seoul reach an agreement, building housing inside Yongsan Park could still face criticism for contradicting the park's founding purpose — and would require clearing the hurdle of amending existing legislation. "Yongsan Park is currently barred from residential development under the special act governing its creation, so the law would have to be changed before any project could proceed," said Myeong No-jun, head of Seoul's housing bureau. "If that happens, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport would hold the permitting authority, and Seoul would become merely a consultative body." Should the government press ahead over Seoul's objections, the backlash over overriding the wishes of the local government and its residents could intensify further.