Ahead of Urban Park Deregulation, Re-designated as Natural Park... Court Rules "Legal"

The court has ruled that Seoul City's re-designation of undeveloped park land as urban natural park zones ahead of the 'Urban Park Sunset Clause' is not illegal.

According to the legal community on the 15th, the Administrative 7th Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Chief Judge Jeong Sang-gyu) ruled against 113 landowners of 10 urban natural park zones in Seoul in a lawsuit filed against the Mayor of Seoul seeking cancellation of the designation of urban natural park zones.

In 2020, facing the 'Urban Park Sunset Clause,' Seoul City newly designated park land as urban natural park zones. Legally, this changed the 'parks under urban planning facilities,' which are subject to the sunset clause, into 'parks under zoning districts,' thereby avoiding the application of the sunset clause. The Urban Park Sunset Clause is a system where if a local government designates private land as an urban park (urban planning facility) according to urban planning but does not implement park development projects for 20 years, the designation loses its effect.

In response, the landowners filed a lawsuit claiming that re-designating zones that had long restricted land use as urban parks infringed on their property rights.

The court ruled in favor of Seoul City. The bench stated, "It is difficult to conclude that Seoul City's discretionary judgment was manifestly irrational or clearly contrary to the principle of equity," and dismissed all claims of the plaintiffs.

The court held that "Seoul City has relatively broad discretion in designating urban natural park zones to restrict development that causes damage to good forest areas in urban regions."

Furthermore, the court judged, "Considering that the land area in question is designated as a development-restricted zone and that even without the designation as an urban natural park zone, there are significant restrictions on various development activities, it cannot be concluded that designating the land as an urban natural park zone excessively infringed on the private interests of the plaintiffs."