Gyeonggi-do Establishes Integrated Guidelines for Greenbelt Release... Enhancing Environmental and Regional Economic Aspects

Gyeonggi Provincial Government Gwanggyo New Office Building

Gyeonggi Province has mandated that when promoting Greenbelt (GB) release projects, the restoration ratio of damaged areas to parks and green spaces must be at least 15%, and has established grounds to apply a relaxed public contribution ratio when attracting new growth industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors.

Gyeonggi Province announced that it has prepared the 4th revision of the "Gyeonggi Province Greenbelt Release Integrated Guidelines," which includes securing additional restoration of damaged areas, parks, green spaces, and public rental housing beyond the legal standards to ensure the public interest, public nature, and environmental aspects of Greenbelt release projects, and has implemented it starting from the 3rd.

The revision first strengthened the restoration plan area ratio as an environmental enhancement measure. Previously, the legal restoration ratio for damaged areas was 10-20%, and most developers restored only the minimum 10%. Accordingly, the province has made it mandatory to restore at least 15%, which is 5 percentage points higher than the legal minimum of 10%, to secure additional parks and green spaces.

To restore and preserve the metropolitan greenbelt axis, the release project sites within 300 meters of Baekdudaegan or Hannam Jeongmaek (Anseong Chiljangsan~Gwanggyosan~Gahyeonsan~Gimpo Munsusan) and Hanbuk Jeongmaek (Gangwon Sikgaesan~Paju Jangmyeongsan) were restricted.

Additionally, it became mandatory to present measures to reduce greenhouse gases and other climate change countermeasures, and the guidelines added recommendations such as "compact development methods" to maximize development density and minimize the Greenbelt release area.

Furthermore, as a measure to enhance regional competitiveness, the guidelines discourage development focused solely on housing supply and aim to attract new growth industries (AI, semiconductors, data, etc.) and promote live-work integrated urban development. The integrated guidelines specify that when such projects are promoted, the public contribution ratio can be applied more leniently. A new regulation was introduced requiring urban development projects over 500,000㎡ to compulsorily secure at least 30% of the paid supply area as job sites to contribute to job creation.

To expand opportunities for young people and low-income, homeless citizens to own homes and provide diverse housing choices, equity accumulation-type and profit-sharing-type housing were added to the public rental housing securing standards.

The province also raised the public rental housing securing rate by 10-15 percentage points above the legal 35%. For this additional 10-15% securing rate, developers can choose to supply not only rental housing but also equity accumulation-type housing (acquired at 20-40% of the sale price with additional equity acquisition over 20-30 years) and profit-sharing-type housing (sold at 50-80% of the sale price at a discount, with capital gains shared between residents and developers).

Moreover, for collective settlements (where 20 or more houses are occupied), the clause requiring public contribution measures when changing district unit plans after Greenbelt release was deleted, and park securing standards were relaxed, allowing flexible adjustment of long-term unexecuted or soon-to-be-expired urban planning facilities.

Choo Dae-woon, Director of the Spatial Strategy Division of the province, said, "Gyeonggi Province is the region where the most Greenbelt release projects are promoted nationwide, including the 3rd New Towns, and we are guiding only those release projects with high public interest, public nature, and environmental quality to proceed." He added, "We will continuously inspect and improve deficiencies in the integrated guidelines with a focus on strengthening environmental aspects, revitalizing the regional economy, and resolving residents' inconveniences."

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