Reckless Development

Seoul is increasingly littered with apartment buildings. Rice paddies, fields, and even hills at cemeteries are being uprooted to make way for new developments. It's not only the dearth of housing or illegal attachments, but local governments who are augmenting thier taxes by finding ways around related laws.
A recent JoongAng Daily Newspaper report, 'The Twenty Million-Large Metropolitan,' highlighted the careless development of the Seoul metropolitan area by a collusion between local governments, land developers, and residents.
Examples of a failed urban development policy can be found in Pundang and Ilsan.
After residents in Pundang, who had been there for 7 or 8 years, were protesting the single toll road to Seoul, the government constructed an additional highway and promised the building of a new railroad system. However, these measures are now insufficient in light of new developments in nearby Jookjun and Sooji.
A non-government organization has taken legal action against the reckless development on behalf of the residents in newly developed districts.
There should no longer be development without countermeasures. Semi-agricultural areas and forests should be factored into the building of residential districts. The construction of high-story, high-density housing complexes should only be permitted in designated zones and only after intensive deliberation.
It's time for the Ministry of Construction and Transportation to pay special attention to the building of new roads and the preservation of the environment.

by Byun Sang-keun