Green Carpet Creation, Open Spaces and Shared City Development
Community Restoration, Infrastructure Securing, and Increased Living Convenience
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City has established and is implementing the ‘Urban Maintenance Project Guidelines’ to transform the city into a pleasant and convenient urban area through planned road network connections in maintenance projects, improvement of pedestrian environments, and securing street parks.
Since May 2021, the city has raised the standard floor area ratio for maintenance projects by about 20% in two phases, including a 10% increase in the standard floor area ratio and an additional 9% increase in the old downtown and western Busan areas.
Additionally, as a result of continuously implementing regulatory simplifications such as changes in housing density options, inclusion of unauthorized buildings when calculating housing density, aging, and poor-quality buildings, and operating a permanent T/F team for unreasonable system improvements in maintenance projects, the number of pre-feasibility review applications for new maintenance district designations has increased annually, activating maintenance projects compared to before.
Accordingly, Busan City has relaxed regulations on maintenance projects but established and presented minimum guidelines that citizens must follow to ensure substantial progress in the projects.
This is because more than 70% of urban apartment supply is provided through maintenance projects, which lead the overall changes in urban residential environments and infrastructure improvements such as securing road networks, green spaces, and parks, significantly impacting the surrounding environment.
The seven core principles that citizens must observe when promoting maintenance projects are: ① Providing road networks linked to traffic congestion zones ② Offering convenient pedestrian routes within living areas ③ Providing alternative facilities such as pedestrian-only roads and parks for abolished roads ④ Providing public pedestrian pathways and pedestrian-only roads within complexes ⑤ Arranging street-type commercial areas to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts ⑥ Operating open-type complexes by restricting the installation of stone retaining walls and retaining walls ⑦ Securing scenic corridors harmonized with the surroundings.
This is a proactive response to the government’s policy to present maintenance plan guidelines to promote the designation of new maintenance districts (shortening the required period), announced in August last year as part of the ‘National Housing Stability Realization Plan,’ and actively supports the planned and swift processing of maintenance plan formulation and district designation in aging downtown areas.
Regarding the government’s first gate for reconstruction, the safety diagnosis, the city explained that with the improvement allowing the adequacy review by public institutions, which was previously mandatory for all safety diagnosis contents in the case of a ‘conditional reconstruction’ judgment, to be conducted only upon request by the district mayor or county governor who has the authority to formulate plans, an expert advisory meeting reviewing essential matters will be organized and supported for autonomous districts, which will accelerate project promotion in large-scale reconstruction complexes.
Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, “Through the implementation of these guidelines, we expect that the improvement of the pedestrian environment such as the creation of street parks and green carpets, and the activation of maintenance projects through planned implementation will serve as an opportunity to elevate Busan’s urban environment and dignity to a higher level.”
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