"Accelerating Redevelopment"... Shintong Planning Contest Changes from Annual to Rolling Applications

The area around Ahyeon-dong, Mapo-gu, a candidate site for public redevelopment in Seoul.
Photo by Moon Honam

O Se-hoon's redevelopment project, 'Rapid Integrated Planning,' will shift from an annual public contest to an on-demand application system.

On the 7th, Seoul City announced that to improve the residential environment of aging low-rise residential areas and expand housing supply, the method for selecting redevelopment candidate sites, which had been accepting applications once a year through a public contest until last year, will be changed to an 'on-demand application and selection' system. Accordingly, starting in August, residents can apply for redevelopment candidate sites to their district offices regardless of timing, and the city will select candidates through monthly on-demand reviews.

The city plans to secure more than 130,000 housing units in redevelopment candidate sites within this year by additionally selecting 34,000 housing units as candidates within the year, in addition to the 96,000 units secured through contests so far.

The on-demand application requirements remain the same as during the contests. Applicants must meet both of the following conditions: ▲ satisfy the legal and ordinance requirements for designation as a redevelopment maintenance zone, and ▲ at least 30% of landowners wish for zone designation.

Starting next month, the city will hold a selection committee meeting on the third Thursday of every month. Each relevant department of Seoul City will review the zones proposed for the committee at least three weeks prior to the meeting. District offices can recommend zones to the city's relevant departments after completing preliminary reviews, considering the committee schedule, city department review periods, and prior consultations with related departments. Recommended zones will undergo review by Seoul City's departments, be submitted to the committee, and the final selection will be decided through evaluation by the selection committee composed of related experts.

The city plans to prioritize zones with strong promotion intentions as candidates unless there are special exclusion reasons, and will not hesitate to provide administrative and financial support upon selection. To this end, the 'approval consent rate bonus' in the quantitative evaluation will be increased from a maximum of 5 points to 10 points.

Furthermore, in areas where urban regulations (such as Type 1 General and Height Restriction Zones) have lowered project feasibility and caused exclusion from candidate selection more than twice in the past four contests, but where residents have strong promotion intentions, the city will support preliminary feasibility studies. Within this month, the city will first confirm the promotion intention with the relevant district offices for eligible zones, finalize the targets, and support 50% of the service costs so that preliminary feasibility studies can be conducted within the second half of the year. District offices will derive accurate current status of the zones through preliminary feasibility study services, including rough plans and estimated contribution calculations, and then hold resident briefings to reconfirm redevelopment promotion intentions.

Han Byung-yong, Director of Seoul City's Housing Policy Office, said, "Over the past two years, we have selected 46 Rapid Integrated Planning redevelopment candidate sites through contests, and the projects are currently progressing smoothly," adding, "We will accelerate candidate site selection and spare no administrative support to promote redevelopment projects in deteriorated low-rise residential areas."

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