○ Gyeonggi Province Governor Dong Yeon Kim visited Anyang 4-dong on September 8 to hear resident complaints
○ Governor Kim: “Gyeonggi Province will improve outdated residential conditions in old urban areas as well as first-phase new cities.”

On September 8, Gyeonggi Province Governor Dong Yeon Kim announced that the province will formulate a plan to improve the residential conditions of outdated multi-family housing in old urban areas.
Governor Kim visited Anyang 4-dong in Manan-gu, Anyang City, and heard resident complaints. “Many people are having hard times due to outdated residential conditions in old urban areas as well as first-phase new cities. I heard that some people are living in accommodations other than apartments in the old urban areas of Anyang 4-dong. Gyeonggi Province will formulate a plan to improve residential conditions as soon as possible,” Kim said.
A total of 218 declining areas (eup/myeon/dong) exist in Gyeonggi Province (in 23 cities/counties); of these, 27 are in Anyang, the largest number after the cities of Seongnam and Suwon. The Special Act on Promotion and Support for Urban Regeneration defines a declining area as one that exhibits two of the three following criteria for at least three consecutive years over the past five years: (a) a decline in population, (b) a decrease in the total number of enterprises, and (c) a 50% or more ratio of buildings that were constructed more than 20 years ago.
Anyang 4-dong, with a population of 6,900, had become a central area with the relocation of Anyang City Hall in 1961. However, it began to rapidly decline with the development of Pyeongchon New City in the 1990s. Anyang 4-dong had been designated as an urban renewal acceleration district (new town) in 2008. However, this designation was canceled in 2011 and no renewal project has been conducted since. Local residents are demanding a solution to the parking problem stemming from the lack of public parking lots, the improvement of the recreational environment for children, the creation of a safe environment for pedestrians, and more.
On August 24, Governor Kim announced Gyeonggi Province’s comprehensive plan for the renewal of first-phase new cities, saying, “We will pay attention to outdated housing including old urban areas as well as the issues of the first-phase new cities so as to achieve balanced development.”