Jongno-gu Promotes Easing of Zoning District Regulations

Jongno-gu Seeks to Ease Zoning District Regulations… Service Project to Start This Month

Reviewing Possibility of Relaxing Excessive Building Regulations and Deriving Rational Improvement Measures

Jeong Munheon, Mayor of Jongno District

Jongno-gu (Mayor Jeong Munheon) will officially begin a service project in July to establish measures for easing regulations on Jongno-gu’s zoning districts (natural landscape and height districts).

This is to review and analyze the possibility of relaxing existing excessive building regulations and to seek rational management and improvement plans for the natural landscape and height districts.

Currently, among the total area (23.91㎢) within the district, the natural landscape district designated to protect or preserve natural scenery such as mountains and hills covers 2.99㎢, which accounts for 23.9% of Seoul’s natural landscape districts (12.5% of Jongno-gu’s area).

Additionally, the height district, which regulates building heights, covers a total of 1.67㎢, representing 18.1% of Seoul’s total height district area (7.0% of Jongno-gu’s area), indicating a widespread designation.

This is to protect the beautiful natural environment including Bukhansan and Inwangsan within Jongno, as well as the landscapes of major national facilities such as Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Blue House. However, these areas have continuously faced issues such as poor residential environments, lack of maintenance infrastructure, and infringement on residents’ property rights due to excessive building regulations.

Accordingly, Jongno-gu reviewed various urban condition changes including the opening of the Blue House last May and the ‘New Height District Plan’ announced by Seoul City on the 30th of last month, and decided to proceed with this service project for about one year until June next year to amend unreasonable parts.

The district will carefully analyze ‘unreasonable designation areas at the boundaries of natural landscape and height districts,’ ‘areas with overlapping regulations,’ and ‘areas with low landscape impact’ to consider lifting (adjusting) regulations and derive rational regulatory relaxation measures (such as building coverage ratio and height) reflecting local characteristics. However, since designation or changes of zoning districts are decided by Seoul City as urban management plans under the 「National Land Planning and Utilization Act」, the district plans to proceed in close consultation with Seoul City.

Furthermore, based on the results of the service project, Jongno-gu plans to actively recommend and propose measures to ensure practical regulatory relaxation is implemented.

Mayor Jeong Munheon stated, “Excessive designation of natural landscape and height districts has caused regional imbalance and infringed on residents’ property rights, exacerbating various problems. We will strive to devise realistic regulatory relaxation measures that reflect the characteristics of our district and are perceptible to residents, and do our best to ensure these are reflected in Seoul City’s urban management plans.”

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