On the morning of the 8th, the 'Seoul City Center Basic Plan Public Hearing' held at the auditorium of Seoul City Hall Welfare Building
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Seoyul] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced the 'Seoul Downtown Basic Plan,' which includes measures to strengthen urban competitiveness and reorganize green ecological spaces, and presented implementation plans such as improvements to height regulation methods.
On the morning of the 8th, the city held a public hearing on the Seoul Downtown Basic Plan at the auditorium of the Welfare Building in Seoul City Hall and announced the basic plan. The Seoul Downtown Basic Plan is a plan established every five years under the 'Ordinance on Special Support for the Historic Downtown of Hanyangdoseong in Seoul,' presenting the basic direction of Seoul downtown policies and corresponding strategic tasks for the next five years.
The city identified the main tasks of the Seoul Downtown Basic Plan as ▲'Future Growth Downtown,' which promotes the 4·1 Axis Development Project as an innovation strategy based on existing industrial infrastructure ▲'Mixed-Use Downtown,' which doubles the resident population ▲'Green Ecological Downtown,' which expands green space within the downtown area, including open green spaces, to more than 15% ▲'Historic Cultural Downtown,' which strengthens execution and enforcement for the protection of historical and cultural resources ▲and 'High-Quality Downtown,' which promotes redevelopment by leveraging regional characteristics.
Measures to realize these tasks were also presented. First, the height regulation method was improved to utilize incentives. The previous method regulated by maximum height was changed to a standard height, allowing specific heights to be detailed in follow-up plans such as district unit plans. This will be used as an incentive to enhance public interests such as securing public spaces like green areas, strengthening historical and regional characteristics, reinforcing economic foundations, and revitalizing lower floors.
For example, the existing planned heights are set within 30m for scenic protection areas and within 50m, 70m, and 90m for scenic management areas. In areas within district unit zones where securing public interests is necessary, height can be relaxed by up to 10m or 20m beyond the existing planned heights as an incentive.
Additionally, a system operation plan was prepared to reflect new height plans when revising urban and residential environment maintenance plans and district unit plans, and the uniform height standards for buildings along old roads can be abolished in follow-up plans.
Other implementation measures include ▲amendment of ordinances related to Seoul downtown and establishment of grounds for major projects ▲integration and expansion of maintenance management districts and establishment of comprehensive management districts ▲promotion of introducing mixed residential inducement districts and special downtown hub development districts ▲review of ordinance and system improvements related to additional floor area ratio relaxation support ▲preparation of a new height plan system operation plan and abolition of unnecessary standards ▲and unification into a Historic Cultural Resource Management and Architectural Asset Promotion Implementation Plan.
The city plans to finalize and announce the basic plan in December after consultations with related organizations and advice from the Urban Planning Committee following the public hearing.
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