[Editorial] ``Drifting`` of Pangyo Development, Until When?

Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MCT) and Kyunggi Province are juxtaposed against each other over the plan on the development of Pangyo New City. Members of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) are also divided into two parties to support the plans of the MCT and of the Kyunggi Province respectively. On top of this, Seoul City is warning that they will have to pay a high price for the traffic jam due to the inadequate policy measures on the traffic.

“Drifting” of the Pangyo New City development plan is due to the lack of cooperation between the involved organizations. The MDP instigates the confusion instead of administrating the policy, due to the members’ conflicting interests over the plan. This illustrates that there are problems in the process of examining policies within the ruling party.

Kyunggi Province wants to secure the supply of the information business complex by extending the venture complex to 0.6 million pyong, on the one hand. On the other hand, the MCT wants to practically support the construction market business by expanding the residential land. Due to the dispute over the venture complex, other essential problems, such as control of the overpopulation of the metropolitan area, a balanced development of the national land, and the measures on the traffic, have gone unnoticed.

Although Pangyo New City belongs to Kyunggi Province in terms of district administration, it is possible that it can become a bed-town in which people whose major activities take place in Seoul go to sleep there since the new city is close to central area of Seoul. Seoul City opposes any form of the new city construction, which may cause the concentration of the metropolitan area. However, if the government insists to construct the new city, Seoul City is to request for the complete measures on the traffic, such as road and train.

If Pangyo New City is constructed, the Hannamdaegyon- Shingal route on the Kyungbu Highway, which is currently having serious traffic congestion, will be paralyzed. Therefore, Seoul City’s insistence that the traffic measure alone is insufficient and the resident’s moving into the new city should begin after the opening of the New Bundang line, which links Pangyo-Yongsan, is persuasive.

The issue of the overpopulation (46.3 percent of the population) in the metropolitan area is serious. Although the Pangyo development is a problem, the government should take measures to prevent the random development in the adjacent areas following the development of the Pangyo New City. There is a blind spot in the logic of the Kyunggi Province, which insists that there is shortage of land for the venture businesses. Venture complex can instigate the overpopulation of the metropolitan area, and the commercial areas of Bundang are being developed into the resident-commercial complex due to the stagnation in the sale of land.

If the development of Pangyo is unavoidable, the government should find a way to develop the rural type city with the low population density, which was originally promised by the MCT and the MDP. The development of the Pangyo New City, which will greatly influence the quality of life of the 20 million metropolitan residents, should not be decided hastily through the power contest.