[Anchor]

Some 60 housing project sites in Daegu are left neglected without even breaking ground, turning into downtown eyesores. While residents flood local offices with complaints over foul odors and swarming bugs, local governments are left helpless.

Reporter Park Ga-young from TBC has the story.

[Reporter]

A school route enclosed by rusty iron fences.

Children walk past precariously beside it.

Banners announcing the exercise of a right of retention hang everywhere, and the long-abandoned land is overgrown with weeds.

Project approval for building an apartment complex here was granted back in 2022, but to this day, not even a shovel has broken ground, leaving the site abandoned as a downtown eyesore.

As rainwater has pooled for years, even a large puddle has formed.

The stagnant water is filled with various bugs and emits a severe stench.

[Parent: My (elementary school child) is in the third grade, and it's been like this since the first grade. Water seems to be pooling, and it looks quite dangerous.]

Located in Beomeo-dong, known as prime real estate in Daegu, a 8,200-square-meter plot of land sits idle right in the middle of a forest of high-rise apartments.

This is because construction for the mixed-use apartment building has been delayed indefinitely.

[Nearby Merchant: Frankly, I think it has to be developed somehow, so leaving it neglected is naturally wrong.]

There are 66 uncommenced housing construction project sites within the Daegu area.

Among them, 57 have been left untouched for over 2 years, and 12 of those have been neglected for over 5 years.

In most cases, financing issues for construction companies arose due to the economic downturn.

The problem is that, unlike construction sites where work has already begun, sites where not a single touch has been made lack even legal grounds, limiting intervention by local governments.

[District Office Official: Since construction hasn't officially started legally yet, we are reviewing related laws, but there seems to be no mandatory enforcement measure.]

This is why voices are growing calling for the establishment of grounds that would allow local governments to take direct action even on private land if elements detrimental to the public interest occur.

[Kim Kyung-min / Daegu Suseong District Council Member: Because it is essentially a dispute within private land, there is not much room for public authorities to step in. Therefore, we are examining whether we can resolve these parts through ordinances and are actually preparing to enact one.]

Dozens of uncommenced sites neglected for years amid poor management are triggering not only safety issues but also downtown hollowization.

(Video by: Lee Jung-woo, Graphics by: Kim Se-yoon)

Park Ga-young, TBC