Gyeonggi-do to Manage Location of Large-scale Stores from Urban Planning Stage

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is expanding the revision of city and county ordinances that restrict the location of large-scale stores from the urban planning stage to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts.

On the 13th, Gyeonggi Province announced that currently 28 cities and counties, including Suwon City, have revised related urban planning ordinances, and Hwaseong City and Gwangju City have completed legislative notices and ordinance rule reviews, aiming to revise ordinances early next year.

As a result, all 30 cities and counties in the province, except Gwacheon City, which does not have neighborhood commercial areas or semi-industrial areas where related ordinances apply, will revise their ordinances.

The current Distribution Industry Development Act stipulates that large-scale stores must be established and registered after obtaining building permits.

Accordingly, before the location decision stage, there has been no review for protecting small business owners, leading to side effects such as indiscriminate establishment of large-scale stores with a total store area of 3,000㎡ or more, including complex shopping malls, large marts, and shopping centers, which encroach on neighborhood commercial districts.

In response, since 2019, the province has concretized related discussions and prepared measures to restrict the location of large-scale stores that do not conform to the purpose of land use designation within semi-residential areas, neighborhood commercial areas, and semi-industrial areas from the 'urban planning' stage.

In particular, since the commercial influence of large-scale stores affects not only the respective city or county but also adjacent cities and counties, the province encouraged additional participation of cities and counties through briefings with related organizations and meetings with deputy heads of cities and counties, achieving participation from a total of 30 cities and counties.

With this ordinance revision, indiscriminate entry of large-scale stores by land use type and systematic location management have become possible. The province expects this to protect small business owners who have faced difficulties due to COVID-19 and contribute to revitalizing the depressed neighborhood commercial districts.

Hong Ji-seon, Director of the Urban Housing Office of the province, emphasized, "This is the nation's first case of metropolitan and basic local governments jointly cooperating to protect small business owners and revitalize neighborhood commercial districts," adding, "Next year, we will continue efforts to save neighborhood commercial districts by supplementing improvements through surveys targeting local commercial districts."

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