"Civil Proposals Also Accepted"... Seoul City Revises District Unit Planning

Seoul City announced on the 24th that it will prepare improvement measures to enable the private sector to easily propose changes to district unit plans.

A district unit plan refers to designating a specific area within a city and establishing a comprehensive and systematic spatial plan. It is a plan that concretely expresses the current situation and various future condition changes, presenting detailed standards such as urban infrastructure plans, the scale and form of buildings, and landscape plans.

Seoul City Hall exterior view
Photo by Asia Economy DB

So far, district unit plans have been operated in a public-led manner, where the public sector prepares development guidelines and the private sector develops according to these guidelines. While this approach has achieved results in terms of systematic management, Seoul City evaluates that it has been difficult to respond quickly to policy and social changes and that there were limitations in allowing the private sector to demonstrate creativity.

Accordingly, the city plans to improve the system by newly introducing a ‘Private Project Support District Unit Plan (tentative name),’ a private planning and public support method where the private sector plans and proposes, and the public sector supports, enabling quick and flexible changes to district unit plans instead of the existing public-led method.

The main initiative of the Private Project Support District Unit Plan is the introduction of ‘private proposal pre-consulting.’ From the early stages of the project, it will pre-judge the development direction, appropriate development methods, and the possibility of urban planning changes to increase project predictability.

The city will prepare guidelines for the Private Project Support District Unit Plan in the first half of the year and select pilot sites in the second half to prioritize implementation. In addition, it will prepare measures to improve the special planning zone system within district unit plan areas and strengthen execution power, as well as propose various methods to actively promote resident participation in district unit plans.

Furthermore, public support measures such as presenting applicable incentives like floor area ratio and height, and simplifying procedures will be prepared. The city plans to present the applicable floor area ratio incentives and height relaxation ranges within the project site and prepare administrative procedure simplification measures such as drafting, consultation, and review to induce a reduction in the project approval period.

Jo Nam-jun, Director of the Urban Planning Bureau of Seoul City, said, “Seoul City is making multifaceted efforts to transition to flexible urban planning, including this improvement of district unit plans,” adding, “By actively utilizing the creativity of the private sector, we will create attractive urban spaces throughout Seoul and breathe vitality into the entire city.”