Gwangju City Changes Guidelines for Private Operators in Pyeongdong Semi-Industrial Area Urban Development Project

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City has changed the contest guidelines related to the Pyeongdong Semi-Industrial Area urban development project.

On the 23rd, Gwangju City announced that it held a briefing session on the contest for 17 companies that submitted letters of intent in advance to assist applicants in establishing creative and thorough business plans, informing them of some changes to the contest guidelines, including an extension of the submission deadline.

The Pyeongdong Semi-Industrial Area has been a site where local residents have continuously raised development complaints. While accommodating residents' demands, the city announced a public contest for private urban development project operators on October 20 to develop the area as a hub for Gwangju’s future strategic industries such as eco-friendly automobiles, energy, cultural contents, and healthcare industries.

To promote this project more systematically, Gwangju City has been operating an internal collaboration task force (TF) involving related departments since last month.

The TF (headed by the Director of the Planning and Coordination Office) reflected discussions among related departments, urban development experts, and legal advice to change and reannounce parts of the contest guidelines to encourage private sector creative and efficient development plans.

First, the project purpose was clarified to emphasize a systematic and eco-friendly development direction rather than apartment-centered development.

The Article 3 of the contest guidelines on project purpose was changed to: “This project aims to prevent indiscriminate development of the project site and suppress apartment-centered development to pursue systematic urban development. It also aims to create eco-friendly residential conditions and foster core hub spaces for regional strategic industries (such as eco-friendly automobiles, energy industry, cultural contents industry) to contribute to regional economic revitalization and job creation.” This change added the prevention of apartment-centered development and the creation of eco-friendly residential conditions to the original purpose of fostering regional strategic industry hubs.

Additionally, it was specified that when establishing the project plan, an eco-friendly development plan should be created in connection with nearby areas such as Hwangryong River and Jangnok Wetlands.

Furthermore, to induce creative and efficient development plans from the private sector, the original land use plan example in the contest guidelines was replaced with a topographic map showing locations and boundaries.

To enable companies that submitted letters of intent to establish more thorough business plans, the contest period was extended by 20 days from the original 100 days to 120 days, changing the business plan submission deadline from January 29 to February 18 next year.

In addition, some changes were made to the timing of project company establishment and conditions for termination of the business agreement to clarify participation conditions for private business applicants.

Park Nam-eon, Director of the City’s Job and Economy Office, said, “Reflecting the results of discussions in the TF, we can now proceed fairly and transparently in a direction that meets citizens’ expectations and regional development for this project,” and added, “We ask for the support and cooperation of the local community so that creative plans can be established.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.