Bucheon City Mobilizes to Address International Airport Height Restriction Standards: "Local Realities Must Be Reflected"

The city of Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, is making an all-out effort to ensure that the newly revised international standards for airport height restrictions, established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which will take effect on August 4, will lead to a practical easing of height restrictions when domestic standards are established.

The revised international standards separate the "Obstacle Limitation Surfaces (OLS)," which have been in place since 1955, into "Obstruction Free Surfaces (OFS)" and "Obstacle Evaluation Surfaces (OES)." After a period of preparation by each country, these standards will be fully implemented in all 193 member states starting November 21, 2030.

Until now, the height of buildings in areas surrounding airports has been uniformly restricted without considering aircraft performance or flight procedures. However, with the revision of these international standards, there is now a basis for applying building height restrictions more flexibly within the evaluation surfaces through aeronautical assessments. In addition, the newly established evaluation surfaces can be reduced or relaxed by each member state according to the specific conditions of each airport.

In this regard, Bucheon City has pointed out that the ICAO international standards do not provide a significant practical easing of height restrictions compared to the previous limitation surfaces, and that the evaluation surfaces are set to a radius of 10.7 km from the runway. If these standards are applied domestically as they are, the entire city of Bucheon is expected to be affected by aircraft height restrictions. For this reason, the city believes that the standards to be established by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport are of utmost importance.

Bucheon City Hall

To ensure that the revision of the international standards leads to a practical easing of height restrictions, Bucheon City plans to form a task force led by Deputy Mayor Nam Dongkyung. Through research services and expert consultations, the city will develop measures to ease height restrictions in the Bucheon area and actively work to have these measures reflected in the domestic standards. In addition, Bucheon City will continue to petition the government to ensure early implementation before the full enforcement in 2030.

Kim Wooyong, Director of Urban Affairs for Bucheon City, stated, "We hope that this revision of the international standards will serve as an opportunity to resolve height restriction issues by reflecting the realities of the region," and added, "We will continue to consult with the government to ensure that local conditions are fully taken into account."

Meanwhile, the area surrounding Gimpo Airport, covering 184 square kilometers centered on the airport runway, has been designated as an "Obstacle Limitation Surface," and this includes about 42% of Bucheon City's total area. In areas within a 4 km radius, building heights have been restricted to less than 45 meters (57.86 meters above sea level), limiting the property rights of some residents in Ojeong-gu and Wonmi-gu. These restrictions have also hindered redevelopment, reconstruction, residential environment improvements, and balanced regional development.

In response, Bucheon City has collected signatures from more than 40,000 residents and submitted them to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The city has also joined forces with neighboring local governments to demand the easing of height restrictions and the early implementation of the aeronautical assessment system.