Jongno District Head Approves Sewoon District 4 Redevelopment Ahead of Term Expiration

Jeong Moon-hun, the People Power Party mayor of Seoul's Jongno District, has approved the project implementation plan for the Sewoon District 4 redevelopment project with only about two weeks left in his term.
This move sets up a direct confrontation with the newly elected Jongno District mayor, Yoo Chan-jong of the Democratic Party, who recently requested that the district office completely halt the approval process for the Sewoon District 4 project.
According to Seoul Metropolitan Government officials on Friday (June 19), the Jongno District Office notified the city that it had granted the amended project implementation approval for Sewoon District 4 the previous afternoon.
Although the mayor-elect, Yoo, had previously warned the district office that he would consider audits and holding officials accountable if the project was approved before he takes office in July, it is reported that Mayor Jeong signed off on the approval himself.
Following the city's conditional approval of the safety impact assessment, if the Jongno District's decision is officially announced and posted, the only remaining administrative step for the Sewoon District 4 development will be the review of buried cultural heritage by the National Heritage Committee, an advisory body to the Korea Heritage Service.
This decision by the city and the district office is expected to spark controversy as it conflicts with an administrative order from the Korea Heritage Service.
In May, the Heritage Service sent an official letter to the city and the district office ordering them to "implement measures necessary for the protection of the World Heritage site Jongmyo and its historical and cultural environment." The letter stated that the project implementation approval process should only proceed after a World Heritage Impact Assessment is conducted to determine if the Sewoon District 4 redevelopment would negatively affect Jongmyo.
To compensate for low project profitability, the city is pushing forward with the project by significantly relaxing height restrictions, increasing them from 55 meters to 98.7 meters on the Jongno side and from 71.9 meters to 141.9 meters on the Cheonggyecheon side.
The Korea Heritage Service has argued that the high-rise buildings planned for Sewoon District 4 could damage the view from Jongmyo and has insisted that a World Heritage Impact Assessment be conducted first.
The city is proceeding with the project without an impact assessment, arguing that Sewoon District 4 is located approximately 180 meters away from the boundary of Jongmyo and therefore does not fall within the historical and cultural environment preservation zone (within 100 meters).
The city is concerned that conducting the impact assessment would significantly delay the project.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.