[Editorial] Flurry of new suburbs is worrisome

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation has been giving the impression of being in some horrendous hurry for constructions in the Shindoshi (New Suburb) area.

Following the announcement Oct. 10 of seven new areas proposed for development as new suburbs by the Korean Research Institute for Human Settlement, the MCT has revealed a plan to officially designate two or three of the areas for a new round of construction as new suburbs this weekend.

The ministry's shift in promoting the construction of the new suburbs, which directly opposes its earlier position that such new suburbs promote overcrowding in Seoul and areas around the city, only leaves behind a chorus of questions.

While supposedly promoting the relocation of government buildings and private business headquarters away from Seoul to the provinces, the MCT's plan to designate huge areas as new suburbs seems paradoxical and raises suspicions that the MCT has abandoned its plans for relocation of businesses and government buildings.

Unlike the planned construction of the new suburbs such as Pundang and Ilsan around the end of the 1980s, there is not an absolute shortage of housing. Although some have pointed to the rising cost of the "move-in" deposit money as a sign of a housing shortage, such a trend always has accompanied the stabilization of housing prices. The cause for the rising key money costs for smaller residences also lies in the abolishment of mandatory construction of smaller housing.

Unlike the 1980s, when the prices of apartment units jumped after having been assigned to a purchaser, the demand and the purchasing power in the housing market today has greatly decreased. Should the construction of new suburbs result in a great increase of supply of housing, experts predict that many will be left unsold.

If the planned construction of new suburbs is an attempt to support the slackened construction industry, it should be done gradually over several years. The blitz of new suburb construction only provides a temporary expansion in the construction labor market and delays the structural reform of the construction industry. Only through competition in a narrow market can non-competitive construction companies be driven out.

The claim that the construction of new suburbs was necessary to suppress development of landfills around Seoul also seems shabby. With the rising land values due to the construction of new suburbs such as Pundang and Ilsan, the development of landfills around the new suburbs only worsened.

Currently, half of the population of Korea lives in an area a little over 10% of the total area. As such, traffic congestion, water consumption and environmental pollution have reached a detonation point. Should new suburbs be added to the current situation, the quality of life in the city will only worsen and the depopulation trend of the provinces also will worsen.

Of the seven areas proposed as candidates for new suburbs by the KRIHS, only the Asan area near Chonan is not a suburb of Seoul. Especially, if a new suburb were built in the Pangyo area, which is nearer to Seoul than Pundang, the bottleneck effect in the traffic flow would levy a great toll on commuters.

When planning the location of a new suburb, it is important to consider the infrastructure aspect such as the population concentration problem and the side effects in traffic dynamics. In England or France, when a new suburb is planned, it stretches out over 10 to 20 years. It is important to turn an ear to various expert sources and to make plans carefully.