‘15-Minute City Busan’ Project Launches … First Target Areas Selected for ‘HAPPY Challenge’ in Dangam and Gaegum Districts

Selection of Pilot Project Target Areas, Two Additional Locations: Sinsennan Port Zone and Mangmi Suyeong Zone

Busan City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The ‘15-minute city’ project promoted by Busan City is gaining momentum. Following the selection of the first project site, two pilot project areas have also been designated.

On the 15th, Busan City announced that it had finally selected the Busanjin-gu Dangam·Gaegum living area (Buam 3-dong, Dangam 1·2·4-dong, Gaegum 3-dong) as the first project site for the ‘Happy Challenge’ neighborhood.

To promote the spread of the 15-minute city and encourage participation from autonomous districts and counties, the city added two pilot project areas for the ‘Happy Challenge’: Yeongdo-gu Sinseonnamhang area and Suyeong-gu Mangmi·Suyeong area.

The Happy Challenge is a project that will serve as a catalyst to create and expand ‘15-minute City Busan,’ the first pledge of Mayor Park Hyung-joon of Busan.

For this project, from this year through 2024, Busan City will select five representative living areas out of 62 living areas across the city and invest 30 billion KRW in each living area.

The plan is to expand and create exchange and shared spaces such as pedestrian-based convenience facilities and operate community programs in the created spaces to establish a model for spreading the 15-minute city.

In July, the city held a project briefing session for related departments at the city hall (14 offices and bureaus, 27 departments) and autonomous districts and counties. From July 18 to August 3, applications for the first project sites were accepted from autonomous districts and counties, resulting in 15 living areas submitted from 15 autonomous districts and counties, excluding Jung-gu.

From August 4, a preliminary review was conducted over five days on the submitted living areas based on criteria such as ▲community activation level ▲public facility operation status ▲available idle land ▲establishment of cooperation systems among related organizations ▲necessary projects by living area. As a result, five living areas were selected as preliminary candidates: ▲Seogu Daeshin living area (Dongdaeshin 1·2·3-dong, Seodaeshin 1·3·4-dong) ▲Yeongdo-gu Sinseon·Namhang living area (Namhang-dong, Yeongseon 1·2-dong, Sinseon-dong, Bongrae 1·2-dong) ▲Busanjin-gu Dangam·Gaegum living area (Buam 3-dong, Dangam 1·2·4-dong, Gaegum 3-dong) ▲Buk-gu Mandeok living area (Mandeok 1·2·3-dong) ▲Suyeong-gu Mangmi·Suyeong living area (Mangmi 1·2-dong, Suyeong-dong).

On August 10, through a public-private joint selection committee meeting, Busanjin-gu Dangam·Gaegum living area was finally selected as the project site among the five preliminary candidates.

The selection committee consisted of 13 members, including ▲regional experts recommended by autonomous districts for preliminary candidate selection ▲private experts from the 15-minute city advisory group ▲city officials. The committee evaluated based on ▲alignment with the 15-minute city vision ▲local government willingness for project implementation and cooperation ▲expected effects and ripple effects of the Happy Challenge project.

The decision on the project site by the selection committee departed from the previous scoring method and was processed through free discussion and sufficient exchange of opinions among committee members, followed by a vote.

A private committee member attending the selection committee said, “All five candidate living areas had strong project intentions and differentiated content, making it difficult to rank them. I think Busanjin-gu received relatively high evaluations as it learned about public-private cooperation systems and issues through the Busan City living area plan pilot zones from 2019 to 2021.”

The selection committee decided to designate various pilot project sites reflecting regional characteristics besides the selected project site to spread diverse strategic tasks of the 15-minute city and encourage participation and interest from autonomous districts and counties.

They proposed Yeongdo-gu Sinseon·Namhang living area and Suyeong-gu Mangmi·Suyeong living area as two pilot project sites, and the city accepted the committee’s recommendation to include pilot project content and sites in the preliminary plan to be established later.

The city plans to establish a preliminary plan for the creation of pilot zones and pilot projects from mid-August to early October. From October to the end of the year, detailed execution plans will be developed alongside the preparation of the next year’s main budget, and from January next year, the pilot zone creation will be promoted for one year and six months.

Kim Kwang-hoe, Director of Urban Balanced Development Office of Busan City, said, “Although the ‘Happy Challenge’ project is planned and implemented directly by the city, it is difficult to succeed without the participation of related organizations such as autonomous districts and counties, residents, and the private sector. We hope for much interest and support from citizens until successful cases spread throughout the city and Busan becomes a city where people want to live again.”