Changwon Special City, Lays Out Major Blueprint for 50-Year Future Urban Plan

Establishment of Changwon Urban Master Plan for 2040

Setting 8 Medium Living Zones Including Masan and Samjin

A blueprint for a 50-year future urban plan that can revolutionize Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam has been unveiled.

Changwon Special City has established the 2040 Changwon Urban Master Plan, which presents the desirable future vision and long-term development direction the city should aim for by 2040.

Since the commencement of the project in April 2020, the city formed the first-ever citizen planning group in Gyeongsangnam-do and collected opinions through four rounds of consultations. Subsequently, in 2021, a public hearing was held, opinions were gathered from the city council, and advice was sought from the Changwon City Urban Planning Committee. In 2022, the national land planning evaluation was completed, followed by consultations with central government ministries and Gyeongsangnam-do related agencies, and review by the Gyeongsangnam-do Urban Planning Committee. The urban master plan was officially approved on February 15.

A groundbreaking 50-year urban plan blueprint has been unveiled to dramatically develop Changwon Special City, Gyeongnam.

The city will open the plan for public viewing from April 31 to May 5.

The main points of the 2040 Changwon Urban Master Plan include setting the planned population at 1.14 million by 2040, designating the entire Changwon area as a large living zone, and dividing it into eight medium living zones: Buk-myeon, Palyong, Changwon, Masan, Samjin, Naeseo, Jinhae, and Ungdong. The city’s future vision is defined as “Citizen-Engaged Smart Future Northeast Asia Hub City Changwon.”

The city’s spatial structure breaks away from the existing 2025 Changwon Urban Master Plan’s three downtowns, three sub-centers, and three regional centers. It considers the broader spatial structure of the upper-level Gyeongsangnam-do comprehensive plan and strengthens central functions through linked development with adjacent cities. It also envisions a development axis based on the location of Jinhae New Port, establishing one metropolitan downtown (Masan·Changwon), one downtown (Jinhae), one strategic sub-center (Ungdong), one sub-center (Buk-myeon), and four regional centers (Daesan, Naeseo, Samjin, Gusan).

The development goals by living zone are as follows: Changwon zone (Buk-myeon, Changwon, Palyong living zones) aims to strengthen metropolitan administrative and business functions for the special city’s development and realize a convergence production city as the forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution; Masan zone (Masan, Naeseo, Samjin) focuses on intensive urban development through compressed mixed-use development centered on a marine new city to create one of the world’s top four beautiful ports; Jinhae zone (Jinhae, Ungdong living zones) aims to establish a foundation for future urban growth through specialization in smart complex logistics functions and enhance the image as one of the world’s top seven marine port logistics cities.

The land use plan designates 125.262㎢ of urbanized land, 66.385㎢ of planned urbanized land, 581.155㎢ of preservation land, and 196.708㎢ of sea area (unassigned land), totaling 969.510㎢.

The planned urbanized land by living zone is designed to promote growth in sub-centers (Buk-myeon, Ungdong) located along the metropolitan growth axis outside the existing urban area, considering the 2040 spatial structure concept.

Population plans and various projects have been appropriately allocated by living zone to ensure sufficient development volume for urban development projects and industrial complex development. Only total volumes by living zone and phase are set, while detailed uses and specific locations will be determined later through urban management plans according to development.

Additionally, basic directions for plans in infrastructure, transportation, downtown and residential environment, environmental conservation and management, and parks and green spaces have been established.

Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City, stated, “We have established the spatial structure, living zones, and sectoral development goals as the development direction of Changwon City until 2040, completing the foundation to enable large national projects such as National Industrial Complex 2.0 and Jinhae New Port, as well as various urban development projects, industrial complex creation projects, and residential environment improvement projects. We believe this foundation will significantly contribute to maintaining Changwon Special City’s status and the city’s development over the next 50 years.”

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