Seoul City to Redevelop 588 Special Planning Zones... Accelerates Project Pace

Areas with Little or No Progress Designated as Special Planning Zones for 3 Years
Floor Area Ratio, Height, and Usage Restrictions Eased to the Maximum
Review Procedures and Periods Also Shortened

Seoul City will undertake a large-scale redevelopment of special planning zones totaling an area equivalent to 4.6 times that of Yeouido. Zones where development has not been pursued for a long time or where progress has been slow will be reorganized. Instead, after designation, bold incentives such as relaxing floor area ratio, height, and usage regulations to the maximum legal limits will be provided. The review process will also be simplified to shorten the duration.

On the 30th, Seoul City announced the "Special Planning Zone Revitalization Plan" with these details.

Strict Designation... Non-pursued Zones to Become Special Planning Possible Zones with a 3-Year Limit

The Yongsan Electronics Market area, a special planning zone.

Special planning zones refer to areas within district unit planning zones where creative development plans need to be accepted or separate development plans are created and adopted as district unit plans. Usually, when large-scale development is required within a district unit planning zone, parcels are grouped together and designated as such. Once designated as a special planning zone, individual parcel construction activities such as new construction or extensions are restricted.

Seoul City will undertake a major overhaul to accelerate the project progress of special planning zones. Existing zones where projects have not progressed for over 10 years or where development purposes are unclear will be converted into "Special Planning Possible Zones." Unlike existing special planning zones, these zones have a validity period of 3 years, after which they will revert to general zones. This aims to allow individual construction activities to alleviate residents' inconveniences and concerns about property rights infringement.

Additionally, going forward, new special planning zones will only be designated if the project plan is clear. Legal consent requirements under the Housing Act, Building Act, and Urban Renewal Act (Dojeongbeop) will be secured to ensure project feasibility.

As of the end of 2022, Seoul City manages a total of 588 special planning zones. These include large-scale development areas such as Gangnam COEX, Yongsan Electronics Market area, and Jamsil Stadium, covering approximately 14 million square meters. This is a significant increase from 164 zones in 2002. However, due to excessive designations, rigid systems, and complicated decision-making procedures, project progress has been slow. In fact, 55% (325 zones) of the currently designated 588 zones have no ongoing projects. Long-term non-pursued zones where projects have not advanced for over 10 years account for 24% of the total.

Bold Incentives Upon Designation... Allowing Payment of Public Contributions in Cash

While strengthening the designation criteria for special planning zones, flexible development plans will be applied after designation. If zones are developed in line with Seoul City's policy direction or creative plans are proposed, floor area ratio, building coverage ratio, height, and usage standards will be relaxed to the maximum legal limits. Changes between use districts will also be permitted if necessary.

Furthermore, if public facilities such as public service offices, parks, and parking lots are already sufficient within the special planning zone, payment of public contributions in cash will be allowed. Until now, public contributions were only possible through facility installation, causing difficulties in project promotion when there were unexecuted facilities or no suitable sites within the area.

Urban renewal-type redevelopment projects will also be introduced, allowing the designation of deteriorated and poor-quality areas as special planning zones where project promotion was previously difficult. The city plans to speed up the process by handling special planning zone designation and redevelopment plan establishment procedures simultaneously.

For areas requiring city-level planning management, Seoul City plans to expand direct initiation to enhance project feasibility. The review process, which currently requires approval from both the Urban Planning Committee (Doge-wi) and the Joint Urban Architecture Committee (Dogeon-wi), will be simplified to operate only the Joint Urban Architecture Committee.

This revitalization plan will be implemented immediately for new district unit plan establishments from this day forward. For existing special planning zones, related procedures such as public notices for cancellation and conversion will proceed by the end of the year.

Jo Nam-jun, head of Seoul City's Urban Space Headquarters, said, "Once the special planning zone revitalization plan is fully operational, major urban development policies will gain momentum. We will continue to revise existing systems in line with urban change trends and establish a flexible and creative urban development system to rapidly realize the grand transformation of Seoul."