'Urban Planning Public Hearing' Reflecting the Future Vision of 26 Million Metropolitan Area to Be Held... on the 7th in Suwon

Public Hearing Poster

A time will be set aside to discuss the mid- to long-term development strategy for the Seoul Metropolitan Area, including Gyeonggi-do, Seoul, and Incheon, where 26 million people reside.

On the 6th, Gyeonggi-do announced that on the 7th, it will hold a public hearing on the '2040 Seoul Metropolitan Area Comprehensive Urban Plan (Draft)' at the Gyeonggi Human Resources Development Institute in Jangan-gu, Suwon, together with metropolitan local governments such as Seoul and Incheon.

The comprehensive urban plan is the highest-level plan in the urban planning system established under the "National Land Planning and Utilization Act" and presents the long-term development direction of the metropolitan planning area.

It serves as a guideline for the basic plans of provinces and cities/counties as well as their management plans.

The three provinces and cities signed a "Business Agreement for Establishing the 2040 Seoul Metropolitan Area Comprehensive Urban Plan" in December 2018 and formed the "Comprehensive Urban Planning Council" to discuss various changing conditions and metropolitan urban issues such as transportation and environment.

Subsequently, in March 2019, they began joint research and drafted the '2040 Seoul Metropolitan Area Comprehensive Urban Plan.'

To establish a plan that residents of the metropolitan area can relate to, the three provinces and cities provided opportunities for residents to participate directly in the planning process from the early stages through public debates and surveys. In this public hearing, they also plan to actively collect diverse opinions from metropolitan residents both online and offline.

This public hearing will be broadcast live on the Gyeonggi-do YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com//ggholics). A Q&A session through comments will also be provided. After the public hearing, the three provinces and cities plan to listen to opinions from the councils and proceed with advisory procedures from the provincial and city urban planning committees before applying for plan approval from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The plan will be finalized after review by the Central Urban Planning Committee.

Lee Gye-sam, Director of the Urban Housing Office of Gyeonggi-do, said, "Given that 50% of the domestic population is concentrated in the metropolitan area, there are issues such as traffic congestion, but the abundant human resources are also the growth engine of the Republic of Korea." He added, "We hope that the plan being established this time will strengthen inter-city and provincial connections, serve as a foundation for national development, and ultimately benefit the lives of metropolitan residents."

Jo Nam-jun, Director of the Urban Planning Bureau of Seoul, explained, "The 2040 Seoul Metropolitan Area Comprehensive Urban Plan will be a cornerstone that allows Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi to proactively prepare for the rapidly changing urban environment together." He added, "Through this, we expect to promote mutual development among regions and further become a metropolitan area with 'international competitiveness' that can compete with overseas major metropolitan areas."

Choi Tae-an, Director of the Urban Planning Bureau of Incheon, emphasized, "Through the 2040 Seoul Metropolitan Area Comprehensive Urban Plan, we will gather diverse opinions from residents on sustainable development and urban environment improvement in the metropolitan area to prepare the plan, and further specify its contents in the currently ongoing '2040 Incheon Basic Urban Plan (Amendment).'"

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