Seoul City Offers Floor Area Ratio Incentives for Installing Subway Entrances Inside Buildings

Seoul City announced on the 20th that it will provide incentives such as increased floor area ratio (FAR) if subway entrances are relocated and installed inside buildings.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Currently, there are 275 subway stations on lines 1 to 8 in Seoul, with a total of 1,442 entrances. Most entrances are installed on sidewalks, causing pedestrian inconvenience and detracting from the urban landscape. Only 69 entrances, or 4.8% of all subway entrances, are connected inside buildings.

To improve the sidewalk environment, the city established a regulation in the 'Seoul City Urban Planning Ordinance' in 2010 that relaxes the floor area ratio when subway entrances are installed inside buildings (sites). However, the benefits were limited, making activation difficult.

Accordingly, the city has significantly revised the existing incentive criteria related to subway entrances. To introduce the relocation of subway entrances with high public interest when projects are promoted in district unit planning zones and urban renewal redevelopment zones, the city prepared inducement items such as ▲providing benefits (maximum floor area ratio) when connecting passageways are installed ▲prior review of public contributions ▲plans for autonomous relaxation items (building coverage ratio, floor area ratio) according to project characteristics.

When subway entrances are installed inside buildings (sites), the developer will receive floor area ratio increase benefits for the entire subway entrance and connecting passageways that they install and provide.

In addition to benefits for the existing entrance installation area, additional floor area ratio increase benefits will be provided for the construction costs of connecting passageways, and the donation coefficient in the maximum floor area ratio application formula will be strengthened from 1.0 to 1.2 to actively encourage installation of entrances inside buildings.

Furthermore, when projects are promoted in district unit planning zones and urban renewal redevelopment project zones in station areas with poor pedestrian environments in the city center, the installation of subway entrances including connecting passageways will be given priority review as public contributions.

Additionally, depending on the characteristics of the station area project site, developers will be allowed to autonomously choose which relaxation item they prefer between floor area ratio and building coverage ratio.

The city plans to revise the Urban Planning Ordinance and district unit planning guidelines within the year and establish standards for construction costs of connecting passageways. These will be used as criteria to help developers predict the benefits they can receive when promoting projects.

Jo Nam-jun, Director of the Seoul City Urban Planning Bureau, said, “Through this expansion of incentives, we will increase the feasibility of projects while making a practical contribution to improving the poor pedestrian spaces in the city center.”

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