'Urban Forests and Living Forests' Can Now Be Created in Urban Natural Park Zones

Relaxation of Landowner Purchase Claim Criteria in Urban Natural Park Zones

The Gwangpyeong Urban Forest Trail in Gumi-si, Gyeongbuk, awarded the '2014 Green City Grand Prize'.

From now on, it will be possible to install urban forests and living forests within urban natural park zones. In addition, the criteria for purchase requests will be relaxed to protect the property rights of landowners within these zones.

On the 14th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that the Cabinet approved a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Urban Parks and Green Areas, which includes these provisions.

Urban natural park zones were introduced in 2005 as designated use zones to prevent indiscriminate development of park sites that would become invalid due to the park sunset system. These zones are designated in mountainous areas with healthy vegetation within urban areas. As of December last year, 234 locations nationwide covering 342㎢ have been designated as urban natural park zones.

Currently, within urban natural park zones, facilities such as recreational forests and forest bathing areas can be installed, but urban forests and living forests, despite playing a major role as carbon sinks, have been difficult to establish due to unclear legal grounds.

Also, prior procedures such as activity permits and occupancy permits were required for tree care and pest control within urban natural park zones and urban parks, causing significant inconvenience.

Accordingly, the government decided to add urban forests and living forests to the facilities that can be installed within urban natural park zones and to allow the installation of wooden structures up to 200㎡ in total floor area and two stories or less.

Procedures have also been simplified to allow management activities such as tree care and pest control within urban natural park zones without separate permits, enabling proper tree management.

Measures to strengthen the protection of property rights for landowners within urban natural park zones will also be established.

Currently, since there are activity restrictions on land designated as urban natural park zones, a 'purchase request system' is in operation whereby landowners can request local governments to purchase their land, but the strict criteria for purchase decisions have limited the amount of land that can be purchased.

Therefore, the government has relaxed the decision criteria so that if the land is classified as residential land, the local government head can purchase the land upon the landowner's purchase request regardless of the publicly announced land price.

Kim Bok-hwan, Director of Urban Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "With this amendment, the role of urban natural park zones as urban carbon sinks will be strengthened, and it is expected to contribute to the protection of property rights of landowners within the zones." The amended enforcement decree is scheduled to be promulgated and enforced within this month after the President's approval.

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