Boondang Central Presbyterian Church is the owner of a 19,834 square meter land located at 110 Seohyeon-dong, Bundang District, Seongnam City. Recently, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has suggested using the land to build a public housing complex (Project name: Newly Married Happy Town) on public development. The church immediately formed the Board and the members are not happy about the idea of public development. <Power Korea> heard their story. 

Participants of the Round Table Talk
Im Chae-gwan (elder, Head of the Board)
Lee Jong-do (elder, Clerk of the Board)
Hwang In-ok (elder, Head of the Strategic Planning Division)
Kim Bum-jun (elder, Header of the External Cooperation Division)
Yoo Myeong-hyun (elder, Head of the Organizing Division)
Jangsuk (elder, Head of the PR Division)

“Opinion gathering should have come first!”
Im: We are not against the suggestion itself but it was stepped off on the wrong foot. The Ministry should have asked opinions of the owner of the land, and of the residents living in the area, first before just throwing out their development plan out of the blue. This settles the assertion of some people that the church is against building the Newly Married Happy Town itself which is not true at all. 
Hwang: The church sold off the land in 2012 and publicly announced to donate the land to Handong Global University and Severance Hospital of Yonsei University to fulfill its will of training medical doctors and of fostering global talents in developing countries which can’t be achieved by the power of a church alone. 
Kim: That’s right. Since building the church 27 years ago, we have worked in sweat on fostering talented opinion leaders in our society. We are proud to say that more than 1,000 people, out of those who have received our scholarship, have obtained a Ph.D. and are making great contributions in and out of Korea right at this moment. We haven’t used our believers’ valuable donations to expand the scale of the church but for this great mission. In this respect, the Ministry’s sudden suggestion of building a housing complex on the land, though it is for people in need, is but a shock. That might ruin our great mission of fostering talented leaders of our society and of the world. 
Yoo: So, like Im said before, some people’s criticism, which the church is against the building the housing complex because we intend to squeeze out more money from the project, is absolutely wrong!

“Public development without consent of the owner of the land is not agreeable”
Lee: Boondang Central Presbyterian Church was the first church in Bundang District when it was built in 1991. Since then, we have exerted to make contributions to the development of our local economy and communities through continuous charity and volunteer activities especially for students in need. 
Hwang: Indeed! The church has donated more than 5 billion won (US$4.5M) for scholarship under a founding vision ‘Nurture the talents, Change the world!’ 
Jangsuk: I think the meaning of ‘public development’ is a development of the areas where there is lack of infrastructure or where a private development is not possible. But our land is possible for private development and already has infrastructure so the LH (Korea Land and Housing Corporation)’s plan for public development on the land seems not agreeable. The church’s 2,555 believers, who are the owners of the land, therefore, have submitted a note of disapproval of the plan to Seongnam City and to the Ministry. 

“Using state-owned areas is better for building public housing complexes”
Lee: Building a public housing complex for newly married couples is a good idea. The problem is that the land price in the area is very high. Naturally, parceling out price will also be very high. In other words, the houses can almost certainly go to the rich newly married rather than the poor. 
Jangsuk: A conflict between the residents in the public housing complex area and the residents out of the area can also be an issue. I think it is a better idea to develop the land, if it should be done, for both rental housing and installment sale but on private development to settle down this possible conflict. 
Yoo: We already have delivered our opinions and messages to the officials of the LH, the Ministry and Seongnam City as well as the lawmaker in our constituency against ‘public development’.
Im: In 2016, the church signed a sales contract with a New Stay Project developer of the Ministry at 30.5 billion won but the project was canceled by the objection of Seongnam City. Last January, we signed a contract with a private developer (Ilwoosung Engineering Co., Ltd.) on private development of the area at 28 billion won and have received 280 million won (1% down payment). 15 billion won was spent on purchasing the land (woods, fields and farmlands) in 2003 and 2005 and 7 billion won on tax, finance and others, totaling 22 billion won. 
Jangsuk: If the government’s compulsory purchase order comes into force, the compensation will see a great difference. This is a reason we are against the public development. Therefore, it is better for the government to find new areas in Bundang District for the use of public housing complexes.  
Kim: I agree. The Baekhyeon-dong amusement park, Bundang Housing Display Hall and the LH Gyeonggi Office, which are all state-owned, might be ideal areas that can accommodate more than 1,500 households announced by the Ministry. 
Yoo: I personally think that we can secure ‘public character’ even if the building is done on private development. That’s why we have submitted a ‘Private Development Proposal’. 
Lee: In other words, the public development plan announced by the Ministry on last July 5th must be withdrawn. After all, the land is privately owned and the government must respect the rights of the owner. 
Hwang: I think the commercial value of a land also must be respected. A development without consent of the owner is impossible and it is wrong. 
Im: The procedure itself has its fault from the very beginning (not asking opinions of the owner of the land and the residents of the district) so we can’t accept the suggestion. I think it is the only way for the government to find new state-owned areas to carry on their building plans if they are to minimize the infringement of privately owned property rights. 

Boondang Central Presbyterian Church was built in 1991 as the first church in Bundang District. The head pastor Choi Jong-chun and the believers have worked together to grow the church under the mission of promoting the values of history, society, people and spiritual health. They have donated 5 billion won scholarship, 2 lighthouses in remote areas, and tried to give out the land for the good will of the two universities. The church, under the leadership of Choi, held seminars on risk of Korean Christianity and its measures in 2013, on new value and social contributions of the church in 2014, and on impending church (religious) tax in Korea in 2016: the book <Risk Management of Church> was published as a result.