Request for Maintenance Plan Proposal to District Mayor Now Possible with 30% Resident Agreement

Request for Maintenance Plan Formulation Possible After Boundary Setting
Legal Basis Established for New Integrated Planning Implemented in 2021
Consideration of Aging Conditions and Opposition Trends When Selecting Candidate Sites

If more than 30% of residents agree, they can request the district mayor to initiate a maintenance plan, as the related ordinance has been amended. Through this, a legal basis has been established for Shintong Planning, one of Mayor Oh Se-hoon's key projects in Seoul.

According to Seoul City on the 5th, on the 29th of last month, the Seoul Metropolitan Council passed an amendment to the Seoul City Urban and Residential Environment Maintenance Ordinance at the 5th plenary session of the 322nd extraordinary meeting. The amendment stipulates detailed requirements such as the consent conditions for requesting the initiation of maintenance plans and the submission documents. The amended ordinance will take effect 10 days after its promulgation.

This resolution established the legal basis for Shintong Planning. Shintong Planning is a system created by Mayor Oh after taking office, referring to a public support plan where the city and experts participate in the maintenance plan establishment stage to provide guidelines that help expedite project implementation. Before the introduction of Shintong Planning, it usually took five years from the establishment of the maintenance plan to the designation of the maintenance zone, but this period has been reduced to two years. Since 2021, the city has selected a total of 52 candidate sites for Shintong Planning.

A Seoul city official explained, "If the resident consent rate exceeds 30%, it is possible to apply as a Shintong Planning candidate site. Until now, the city operated this system independently without a separate legal basis, but this time it has been legalized. Since the system operated independently by Seoul City has been incorporated into the Local Government Act, other local governments can also operate similar systems."

However, according to Seoul City, to be designated as a Shintong Planning candidate site, conditions such as building aging (more than two-thirds of the number of buildings) must be met. The city official explained, "If 30% consent is obtained, an application for a candidate site can be made, but not all candidate applications are selected. The committee selects them considering factors such as aging, surrounding conditions, and resident opposition trends."

Kang Dong-gil, a Seoul city council member who proposed the bill, said, "The city intended to broaden the initial scope when designating Shintong Planning candidate sites, and the ordinance was amended to align with this. Previously, after establishing a maintenance plan, it was possible to request the district mayor to designate candidate sites, but now, even if the maintenance plan is not established, once the district boundary is set, the district mayor can initiate and request the designation of the maintenance zone."