Sejong City "Easing Permitted Uses for Waterside Shops... Resolving Vacancy Issues"

Sejong City is easing the permitted uses for waterfront shopping centers and small-scale tourist accommodations.

On the 30th, Sejong City announced the notification of district unit plan decisions to relax the permitted uses for the Geumgang waterfront shopping centers and small-scale tourist accommodations.

According to the notification, small-scale sports facilities such as clinics, academies, billiard halls, and fitness centers will now be allowed to open in the Geumgang waterfront shopping centers.

This move aims to reduce the vacancy rate of shopping centers by permitting facilities (business types) that were previously not allowed to operate in the area. In fact, the vacancy rate of shopping centers in Sejong City's new town is 30.2%, which is three times higher than the national average of 9.4%, leading to strong calls within the region for Sejong City to take direct action to resolve the vacancy issue.

The decision to allow small-scale tourist accommodations such as hostels in the central commercial areas of Eojindong and Naseongdong follows the same rationale. Recently, demand for accommodations in Sejong has increased due to international events and the relocation of central government ministries.

However, there is a significant shortage of accommodations for local visitors. Therefore, Sejong City plans to permit small-scale tourist accommodations to operate only in the central commercial areas where hotels, department stores, and entertainment districts are planned, provided that they meet criteria such as being at least 100 meters away from residential areas and 200 meters from school sites.

Sejong City expects that expanding small-scale tourist accommodations by utilizing vacant shopping centers in the central commercial areas will partially alleviate the shortage of accommodations and the vacancy problem of shopping centers.

In the future, when applications for change of use to small-scale tourist accommodations in individual buildings are submitted, Sejong City plans to review the approval after going through building standards and architectural committee deliberations.

Mayor Choi Min-ho of Sejong City stated, “We expect that easing the permitted uses for waterfront shopping centers and small-scale tourist accommodations will help improve the management of local small business owners,” and added, “Sejong City will continue to strive to discover and implement measures to revitalize the local economy.”

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