Han River Basin Local Governments "Need to Ease Location Regulations in Natural Conservation Areas"

Icheon City Hosts 'Hangang Love Forum' with Government Proposal
"Proliferation of Small Factories... Industrial Complex Area Restrictions Must Be Lifted"

Local governments in the Han River basin have demanded the government ease location regulations in natural conservation zones.

On the 31st, Icheon City announced that it held the 4th meeting of the 'Han River Love Forum' for the sustainable growth and development of the Han River basin at the city hall's main conference room.

The meeting was attended by Kim Kyung-hee, Mayor of Icheon, Song Seok-jun, Member of the National Assembly and co-chair of the Han River Love Forum, Bang Se-hwan, Mayor of Gwangju, Im Jong-sung, Member of the National Assembly, Lee Hyun-jae, Mayor of Hanam, Jeon Jin-seon, County Governor of Yangpyeong, Lee Chung-woo, Mayor of Yeoju, Seo Tae-won, County Governor of Gapyeong, Oh Seung-hwan, Head of the Han River Basin Headquarters of Korea Water Resources Corporation, and representatives of local residents and forum members. Also attending were Kim Ha-sik, Chair of Icheon City Council, Joo Im-rok, Chair of Gwangju City Council, Yoon Soon-ok, Chair of Yangpyeong County Council, Jeong Byung-gwan, Chair of Yeoju City Council, city and county council members, Oh Jung-woo, Director General of Regulatory Reform at the Office for Government Policy Coordination, Park Myung-joo, Director of the Metropolitan Policy Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Kim Young-gi, Director of the Basin Management Bureau at the Han River Environmental Office of the Ministry of Environment, who listened to the local governments' proposals.

At the meeting, local governments in the Han River basin stated, "Due to development restrictions in areas designated as natural conservation zones under the Capital Region Readjustment Planning Act, small factories are indiscriminately proliferating," and proposed improvements to the system to the government. According to related laws, the area for industrial sites and industrial complexes in natural conservation zones is limited to 60,000㎡ or less.

Dr. Cho Young-moo of the Gyeonggi Research Institute presented 'Location Regulation and Planning Management Measures for Natural Conservation Zones' at the meeting, suggesting 'factory clustering' as a rational way to improve location regulations.

The local governments also proposed specific directions for regulatory improvements.

Icheon City addressed issues and improvements regarding factory location regulations for Han River water quality preservation, Gwangju City requested improvements in procedures for small factory facilities within natural conservation zones, Hanam City emphasized the need to ease waterfront zone regulations for the construction of Misa Island K-Star World, Yangpyeong County proposed simplifying administrative procedures for general industrial complexes within natural conservation zones, and Gapyeong County raised the necessity of excluding population-declining areas from metropolitan regulations and easing the scale of activity restrictions in natural conservation zones.

Kim Kyung-hee, Mayor of Icheon, said, "Residents in natural conservation zones have suffered for over 40 years from unreasonable overlapping and redundant regulations as well as unscientific and irrational restrictions," adding, "There is a need to rationally improve excessive location regulations in natural conservation zones."

The mayor particularly emphasized that to prevent small-scale indiscriminate development and improve the water quality of the Han River, it is essential to expand the factory and industrial complex area limit to over 500,000㎡ to enable large-scale planned locations by improving regulations.

At the meeting, the forum also issued a joint proposal for location regulation improvements and submitted it to the Prime Minister's Office.

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