[News Terms] 'Sintong Planning' Changed to Advisory Method

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The term 'Rapid Integrated Planning' is abbreviated as 'Sintong Planning.' Sintong Planning is a system in which Seoul City actively participates from the early stages of establishing urban maintenance plans such as redevelopment and reconstruction to support the swift promotion of projects.

Seoul City, the autonomous district, and residents form one team to connect the 'complex maintenance project process' into 'a single integrated plan.' Seoul City presents guidelines that balance public interest and project feasibility, significantly reducing regulations and procedures, thereby accelerating project progress.

The drawbacks of existing maintenance projects, such as uniform floor regulations ignoring regional characteristics and the long periods required for plan and design adjustments, have been reduced. In the case of reconstruction projects, which typically took five years from resident proposal to designation of maintenance areas, completion can now be achieved within two years. Since its introduction in September 2021, various projects based on Sintong Planning are underway in a total of 79 locations.

The area around 699 Ahyeon-dong, Mapo-gu, a candidate site for Seoul's public redevelopment. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

However, some areas are withdrawing from Sintong Planning, judging that the excessive public interest demands from the city do not yield significant benefits. Accordingly, the city has prepared an improvement plan introducing an advisory method, a fast-track concept to the existing 'planning method,' and decided to apply it from the second Sintong Planning public selection areas announced on December 29 last year.

A Seoul City official stated, "The newly introduced advisory method targets areas where resident proposals or district unit plans have been established, allowing only advisory review without Seoul City commissioning planning design services," adding, "In this case, the commissioning period (2 months) and planning design period (6 to 10 months) are reduced, resulting in a project progress acceleration of more than two months."