Urban Renewal Policy (2)
In the political sphere, there is a common phrase used whenever a new policy is introduced:
"We will proceed by gathering the opinions of the residents."
In reality, very few citizens ever feel the effects of such promises. This time, however, was different.
"Please gather by building!"
On the third floor of Mir City Hall, a scene reminiscent of a recreational retreat unfolded.
"Shinhwa Parkville! Over here!"
"Eunseong Town!"
City Hall officials and volunteer neighborhood leaders appeared, holding signs with the names of each building.
They gathered the residents, seated them by building, and verified their identities.
Out of 208 households across all buildings, 194 homeowners were accounted for, and a significant number of tenants showed up as well. Twenty-one local business owners from the nearby commercial area also attended.
Yun-hyeok got straight to the point.
"We will begin. Based on our assessment, by actively utilizing the idle spaces, vacant lots, and abandoned commercial properties in the Beomdol District, we estimate that we can establish up to nine new community facilities."
A list of potential community facilities flashed onto the monitor.
"Of these, City Hall will select three, and you will choose the remaining six."
The reason City Hall selected three was to ensure that essential welfare infrastructure for vulnerable groups was secured, even if it went against the majority vote.
For example...
"City Hall has finalized the locations for the daycare center, the after-school care room, and the senior welfare center as shown on the screen," Yun-hyeok said.
"Since these three will be operated directly by the city, you will not be charged any maintenance fees for them. However, even if the city installs the remaining six, you may be responsible for their ongoing maintenance costs."
"How much are we talking about?" an elderly man from Raumville asked.
"We are going to determine that price right now. Representatives from the property management companies, please step forward."
While large apartment complexes have single management companies overseeing the entire estate, villa districts like this one were fragmented, with different companies managing individual buildings.
For instance, Shinhwa Parkville was managed by 'Friendly Neighbors,' Green Villa by 'Squeaky Clean,' and Good Morning House was managed directly by its elderly landlady. Excluding that landlady, five management companies participated in the open bidding. For them, securing this contract was a massive opportunity.
"First, the resident security post. Since the district isn't very large, the city estimates that a two-shift system with one guard during the day and one at night will be sufficient. Their primary duties will be patrolling, parking management, and CCTV monitoring. Since cleaning will be handled by the existing management companies, the workload won't be excessive."
"11 million won!"
"10.8 million won!"
"Ten... ten million! Just ten!"
The management companies shouted out their bids.
The company ultimately selected was 'Building Caretakers.'
Their bid was 9.8 million won.
This meant the maintenance fee increase for each of the 208 households would be around 47,000 won.
Was that too expensive?
Yun-hyeok adjusted the terms to reflect the residents' feedback.
"What if we only employ one daytime guard?"
"6.5 million!"
"6.3 million!"
"5.8 million!"
"5.15 million!"
Squeaky Clean won the bid.
Yun-hyeok proceeded to extract bids for all the other facilities from the management companies, displaying the estimated maintenance fee increase per household on the monitor in real-time.
"Now, please vote to select the remaining six facilities."
***
Naturally, it wasn't entirely smooth sailing.
Complaints and arguments constantly cropped up.
The most tense moment occurred when a landlord from Daejin Villa raised a question.
"Shouldn't only the homeowners be allowed to vote, not the tenants?"
The tenants immediately fired back, asking what he was talking about since they were the ones who would actually be paying the maintenance fees. The landlords retorted that the tenants would just leave in a few years anyway. In an instant, the room was on the verge of a shouting match.
Yun-hyeok stepped in to mediate.
"Everyone, the primary goal of this project is to integrate these fragmented households into a single community and restore our neighborhood bond."
"..."
"Furthermore, this project offers distinct advantages to both sides: asset appreciation for the landlords, and an improved living environment for the tenants. I hope you can cooperate with each other. If that proves too difficult..." He shrugged. "We will have no choice but to move this pilot project to another district."
At that, the room fell silent.
Later, a protest arose from the tenants' side.
"If property values go up, the landlords will just raise our rent, won't they? If that's the case, we'd rather just use external facilities like a regular gym."
"Landlords, what do you think about this?" Yun-hyeok asked, turning to the property owners.
"From City Hall's perspective, improving the living conditions of the actual residents is our priority, so we cannot ignore the tenants' opinions. If they abstain from voting out of fear of rent hikes, preventing the project from moving forward, there is nothing we can do."
"..."
"In 2020, the government introduced the Tenant's Contract Renewal Right. It's a law that allows a tenant to extend their lease once for another two years, with rent increases capped at 5%. Some of you may have already used that right, correct? So, here is my proposal."
Yun-hyeok made a request to the landlords.
"Why don't the landlords grant them one additional contract renewal right? According to City Hall's analysis, we estimate that property values here will likely rise by 10% to 15%."
Using the rise in property values as bait and leveraging existing legislation, he reached a dramatic compromise. The landlords agreed to grant the tenants an additional contract renewal right.
But the friction didn't stop there.
While the vote for an additional parking lot was overwhelmingly in first place, a clash erupted between the residents and the local shop owners.
The residents argued that shop customers had been stealing their parking spaces for years and demanded they be blocked entirely. The shop owners countered that the new parking lot would be built on public land, not the residents' private property.
The real kicker was that the landlords and tenants, who had been fighting just moments ago, were now united as a single team.
Once again, Yun-hyeok stepped in to mediate.
"First of all, to be precise, the newly constructed parking lot is not the residents' private land, but city-owned land. Therefore, the residents have no legal right to restrict its use."
"..."
"Exactly!"
Conflicting reactions erupted from both sides.
"However, City Hall intends to grant that legal authority to the residents. Just as we are giving residents priority access to other facilities like the daycare center."
"Yes, of course!"
"..."
"But we cannot ignore the shop owners' position either. So, how about this?" Yun-hyeok proposed.
"During the day, when the shops are primarily operating, many residents will be away at work. Why not share the parking spaces during those hours? In return, the shop owners can contribute a small portion of the maintenance fees."
"How much would they pay?" the residents asked.
"How much can you offer?" Yun-hyeok asked the shop owners.
"Thirty... thirty thousand won?"
"Fifty thousand won!"
"Forty thousand won!"
After a brief negotiation, they agreed that the shop owners would pay 30,000 won per month. In exchange, residents would be allowed to use the shops' vacant parking spaces at night after business hours.
Various crises continued to arise, but Yun-hyeok never gave up, relentlessly digging to find a compromise.
He also negotiated further adjustments to the maintenance fees. How? By using the maintenance contracts for the city-owned facilities as a bargaining chip.
"Since the daycare center, after-school care room, and senior welfare center will be located within your district, wouldn't it be more efficient and convenient for both City Hall and the residents if your existing management companies handled their maintenance?"
One of the greatest advantages of multi-family villa housing is that maintenance fees are lower than in apartments. If that cost became too high, the project would fail.
"Which company is willing to reduce the residential maintenance fees further in exchange for securing the daycare center contract?"
He had to find a reasonable price point that the majority of residents were willing to pay. If that was impossible, the facility would be rejected.
He accelerated the negotiations and voting.
"Who will adjust their maintenance fees in exchange for the after-school care room contract?"
Furthermore, they could reduce the overall maintenance fee by charging a small additional fee only to the actual users of certain facilities.
"Let's do a demand survey for the fitness room. Please raise your hand if you actually intend to use it."
After counting the hands, he recalculated the overall maintenance fees based on charging those users a monthly fee of 5,000 won.
***
In three hours and twenty minutes, the negotiations were complete!
In addition to the city-designated daycare center, after-school care room, and senior welfare center, the Beomdol District decided to establish an additional parking lot, a security post, a library, a fitness room, a small park, and a shared storage facility.
The additional maintenance fee came out to 41,000 won per household.
Considering the number and quality of the facilities, the price was remarkably cheap, thanks to economies of scale.
It was a grueling, three-hour hardcore negotiation where people argued passionately, raised their voices, and occasionally burst into laughter when someone said something absurd—like when some gym-bro tried to pitch his personal training services on the spot.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone. I know you're all tired, but this is the final step. Please scan this QR code."
The signs brought by the City Hall officials displayed a QR code.
Scanning it connected them to the Beomdol District Residents Association KakaoTalk group chat, operated by the Public Housing Modernization Pilot Project Task Force.
"Please enter using your building and unit number, like 'Shinhwa Parkville Room 101 Beomdol.' You can use a nickname, but please include your address."
Once 520 residents had gathered in the group chat, Yun-hyeok spoke.
"This chatroom is a resident self-governing organization. Right now, a few department directors and I are in here to help set things up."
The host of the chatroom was labeled as [Mayor Lee Yun-hyeok].
"But once the project is complete, we will all leave, and you will elect representatives from each building to run it. Additionally, if you have any civil complaints during the project, you can ask them directly in this chatroom. That is all!"
"Whoooo!"
"Thank you for your hard work!"
The residents applauded.
The crowd of over 500 people began to stream out of the hall.
Although the temporary childcare service operated by the City Hall daycare center was supposed to issue two-hour coupons, they exceptionally issued four-hour coupons due to the length of the negotiations.
***
I can't believe he actually pulled it off.
He was a monster.
A literal monster when it came to negotiation.
How could anyone forge a consensus among 500 people with such wildly conflicting interests? And in such a short amount of time?
The department directors, utterly shell-shocked, followed Lee Yun-hyeok down the hallway of the government building, their bodies tense with anticipation.
The direction this was heading felt incredibly ominous.
"You all saw how it went, right? Once this pilot project is finished, we will expand it to the rest of Mir City. Since I have to focus on other policies, I won't be able to personally oversee every single one."
This explosive project was dropped straight into the lap of the Urban Housing Department.
"Director Choi Ha-gyeong."
"Y-Yes..."
"Please request cooperation from the Welfare Policy Department, the Road and Traffic Department, and other relevant departments, and take full responsibility for pushing this forward."
"Understood."
"The key is to lead the residents to an agreement through dialogue."
"Understood!"
"Gathering citizens to the negotiation table will likely be much easier from now on, once word about the Beomdol District spreads."
"Yes!"
Honestly, Choi Ha-gyeong didn't have the confidence to pull it off as flawlessly as Yun-hyeok had, but since the mayor had just demonstrated it right before his eyes, he couldn't exactly say no. He just had to do his best.
"But Mayor," the Budget Chief said as they walked.
"Should we fund the Beomdol District community facilities using the reserve funds?"
"No, use the urban maintenance budget."
"But we've never used the urban maintenance budget in this manner before..."
"Since it's a new initiative, it would be safer to report it to the city council first. I will obtain the council's approval to separate a special budget for new projects from the general urban maintenance budget."
"Yes! Understood."
"Hyeon-seo."
Jo Hyeon-seo, who had been quietly trailing behind the mayor and the directors, quickly rushed to Yun-hyeok's side.
"Yes!"
"Schedule a meeting with the city council members for next week."
"Got it! I'll get right on it."
Yun-hyeok parted ways with the exhausted directors in front of his second-floor office.
"That's enough for today. Everyone, please go home and rest. Thank you for working hard on a Saturday."
Yun-hyeok bowed politely to them before entering his office.
***
194 out of 208 households.
It seemed like 14 homeowners had failed to attend today's negotiation.
...But that wasn't actually the case.
They were all accounted for.
Even in a run-down area, a house was still worth at least 100 million won. When a major administrative issue involving an asset of that size arose, people would naturally drop everything and run.
Furthermore, since the mayor and the department directors had personally visited each household to promote the event, the residents must have realized this was the real deal and rushed over.
Then who owned the 14 households that didn't show up today?
They were vacant properties.
The paperwork confirmed it. Moreover, they were properties with 'split ownership.'
Redevelopment brokers.
This was exactly what Yun-hyeok had anticipated, and it was the very reason he had chosen the Beomdol District for the pilot project.
Just below the Beomdol District lay Raymi Castle, the crown jewel apartment complex of Mir City. It was a massive, newly built brand-name complex of 3,000 households, boasting a nearby subway station and an elementary school within its grounds.
Because of this, there was immense pressure for apartment redevelopment in the surrounding areas. Targeting this, brokers had been hovering around the Beomdol District.
Did they attend today's briefing?
They probably did.
In reality, the number of vacant properties suspected of being bought by brokers was higher than fourteen.
They had likely estimated the success rate of this project to be extremely low, and while they would have been reluctant to expose their identities, a few of them must have come anyway.
They would have watched to see how things unfolded, and right now, they were probably thinking, *We're screwed.*
After all, wouldn't they also benefit if property values rose?
No. Because they had split the ownership under multiple names. When taking into account the various legal fees, the opportunity cost of intentionally leaving the properties vacant, and the capital gains taxes upon sale, they would actually lose money.
They hadn't bought those houses for a mere 10% increase in value from a modernization policy.
Their goal was to manipulate public opinion and administrative processes to trigger a full redevelopment, securing a large number of apartment distribution rights. Therefore, the policy Mir City was currently pursuing was a devastating blow to them. To make matters worse, the mayor himself had declared war, vowing to root out these brokers.
"Next week is going to be interesting."
The city council members would be nursing massive headaches. Most of them were likely in bed with those brokers, but they would have to calculate the political debts incurred during the Durim-myeon development project, the upcoming election of the council chair, and the nominations for the year after next.
Beep!
Yun-hyeok turned on his computer and sat down.
He needed to draft the ordinance to be passed by the city council first.
Article 1 (Purpose) This ordinance aims to prevent speculative forces from disrupting the housing market and to protect the rights of actual residents by establishing transparent administrative procedures for urban renewal and modernization projects within Mir City.