“If you plant trees where you used to grow rice, you’ll make 10 billion won, and that 10 billion won will come from your taxes.”
It sounds ridiculous, but it could actually happen soon.
People smelling money
A view of the Gyeongbuk Agricultural Research Center in Daegu.
There’s a very old building in Buk-gu, Daegu.
It’s the Gyeongbuk Agricultural Research and Development Institute, a public institution under Gyeongsangbuk-do.
It decided to move to Gyeongbuk in 2014, and Gyeongbuk Province chose Sangju from three candidate sites, Sangju, Uisung-gun, and Yecheon-gun.
The relocation announcement was made on June 29, 2017.
June 29, 2017, KBS Daegu 9 o’clock news.
“The relocation site of Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research and Technology Center has been finalized as Samdeok-ri, Sabalguk-myeon, Sangju-si.”
KBS also reported this news on its 9 o’clock news. It was an inclination for Sangju City.
But soon after, a strange movement was detected.
Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of trees began to be planted in the proposed relocation area.
Trees were planted all over the place where rice was once grown.
Pine, maple, juniper…mostly landscape trees.
It turned out that 30 landscapers and villagers from outside the village were trying to collect compensation for the trees.
According to the Land Compensation Act, when the state acquires land for public projects, it must compensate not only the land but also the obstructions on the land, such as trees.
Article 37 of the Enforcement Rules of the Land Compensation Act. Details the compensation for trees.
The landscapers and landowners even wrote a contract.
However, its contents are outrageous.
The landscaper will bring the tree, plant it, and take care of it.
The landscaper will receive 7 and the landowner will receive 3.
If there is a delay in agreeing on the compensation, the ratio will be changed to 7.5 to 2.5 three years after the contract is signed.
Mr. A, a neighbor, also received such an offer.
“One day, they called me and told me to plant trees. They said they would compensate me for the land, and if I planted trees, they would compensate me for the tree transfer fee. I said no, that’s all taxes.”
Mr. A rejected the offer.
Unlike Mr. A, hundreds of thousands of trees have been planted on the land of residents who accepted the offer.
They covered about 120,000 square meters of the total area of the relocation site of 960,000 square meters.
Trees were planted on 120,000 square meters of land that had been used for rice cultivation. All within two years…
How much compensation are they expected to receive for the trees?
10 billion won. It is estimated that the tree compensation will be 10 billion won.
All taxpayer money. According to the contract, the landscapers will get 7.5 billion won.
It’s better if the government buys the trees, but that’s the cost of replanting them.
Plots filled with trees for compensation.
I called the landscapers and the residents who planted the trees.
“Oh, I don’t want to talk to you, I don’t want to talk to the station, I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
Both steadfastly refused to be interviewed.
I had to find other ways to verify the speculation.
Speculation abounds
First, we obtained drone footage of the site before the previous announcement.
Then, we took a picture of KBS’s current location and compared it.
The land was flat with nothing but rice paddies, and many green trees had been planted.
In 2017, the land was flat with nothing but rice paddies, but now it was easy to spot densely planted trees.
The comparison is even more accurate with aerial photos.
This is a photo from 2017. The ochre-colored land is all rice paddies.
In 2019, after the previous announcement, trees were planted in rows across the land.
About 40 of the 500 plots are like this.
I get closer.
The trees are all small and thin because they are young.
The pine trees are so thin that their circumference is about the width of a cell phone.
And the trees are mostly closely spaced.
In some places, the trees are less than a meter apart.
This is because you have to plant a lot of trees in order to get the most compensation per tree.
Less than a meter between trees.
Normal tree growth is not taken into account at all.
Trees were even planted in the paths of people.
At 1:00 o’clock in the photo, behind the asphalt is a former farm road. The speculators planted the trees in a farmer’s field in order to get a high compensation for the trees.
Even on paper, the speculation is easy to spot.
The year after the contract was signed, 30 farmers simultaneously changed their crops from rice to landscape trees under their agricultural management organization.
This was supposedly done to falsely claim that the trees were planted for ‘agricultural purposes’.
But 30 farmers at the same time? ‘Blindfolded and aghast’.
The villagers sought three types of compensation for the relocation of the agricultural institute: 1.
- land compensation
- farming compensation (compensation for not being able to farm for a while)
- tree compensation
Should taxes pay for the money they want?
At 12 o’clock in the photo, a large number of mugunghwa trees are planted for speculative purposes.
Compensation for trees? What a ridiculous decision.
Gyeongsangbuk-do watched the whole speculation process.
Naturally, we excluded the trees from the compensation.
As expected, the residents who planted the trees objected메이저놀이터, and the two sides were unable to reach an agreement.
In the end, Gyeongsangbuk-do and the residents requested an administrative review of the expropriation by the Central Land Expropriation Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Central Land Commission) under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.
They want the state to decide.
MOLIT Central Land Expropriation Committee.
But…the outcome was outrageous. The committee sided with the residents.
Here’s why.
First, let’s look at the situation by time.
June 29, 2017. Announcement of relocation
November 7, 2018. Business plan published
May 29, 2022. Business Authorization
The project was announced in 2017, the business plan was published in 2018, and the business was authorized in 2022.
Common sense would suggest that 2017 should be the reference date for compensation, but the Ministry of Land and Infrastructure chose 2022 as the reference date for compensation.
The Land Compensation Act was the basis. The current law states that an individual’s development activities are restricted after the business is authorized.
In other words, before business authorization, development activities such as planting trees are allowed.