Wonju City "Special City Area Standard Should Be Lowered from 1,000㎢ to 500㎢"

Submission of Joint Petition for Amendment of the 'Local Balanced Development Act' with Asan and Gumi City
"No Special City Meets Both Population and Area Criteria Simultaneously"

Wonju City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province (Mayor Won Kang-su), announced on the 14th that it has submitted a joint petition to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety for the amendment of the "Special Act on Local Autonomy Decentralization and Regional Balanced Development" together with Asan City, Chungcheongnam-do, and Gumi City, Gyeongsangbuk-do.

The Local Decentralization and Balanced Development Act, which was enacted in July last year, aims to resolve regional imbalances, promote autonomous development tailored to regional characteristics, and achieve region-led balanced development through local autonomy decentralization.

Full text of the joint petition for the amendment of the "Special Act on Local Autonomy Decentralization and Regional Balanced Development" jointly submitted by Wonju-si, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, Gumi-si, Gyeongbuk, and Asan-si, Chungnam. Image provided by Wonju City Hall

According to the law, if granted metropolitan city special status, administrative districts can be established, and about 120 delegated tasks will be supervised by the responsible central government ministries rather than the metropolitan local governments. In terms of administrative structure, since administration is not separated from the province, some of the governor’s authority in areas such as organization, personnel, and urban planning is delegated to the mayor, giving it a character intermediate between a metropolitan city and a general city.

Currently, local governments applying this special status include Hwaseong, Seongnam, Bucheon, Namyangju, Ansan, Pyeongtaek, Siheung, Anyang, and Gimpo in Gyeonggi-do; Cheongju in Chungbuk; Cheonan in Chungnam; Pohang in Gyeongbuk; Gimhae in Gyeongnam; and Jeonju in Jeonbuk. The only metropolitan local governments without metropolitan cities or special cities are Gangwon and Jeonnam.

In particular, Wonju City does not meet the area criterion (868㎢) in Article 58 of the law, which states, "For local governments with a population of 300,000 or more and an area of 1,000 square kilometers or more, they shall be regarded as metropolitan cities with a population of 500,000 or more," and thus has not been granted metropolitan city special status.

To resolve this, Wonju has formed a business agreement since 2022 with Asan in Chungnam and Gumi in Gyeongbuk, which are in the same situation, and is jointly responding to amend the law.

In fact, there is no local government nationwide that meets both the population and area requirements simultaneously to be recognized as a special city, and under these circumstances, the three local governments including Wonju are handling more administrative demands than metropolitan cities with populations over 500,000.

The area criterion of 1,000㎢, which lacks practicality, urgently needs to be lowered to 500㎢ to secure the special status. Although about 30% of Wonju’s total area (868㎢) is restricted due to water source protection zones (7.5㎢) and wastewater discharge restriction zones (260.3㎢), which act as shackles on urban development and growth, Wonju is solidifying its position as the "optimal site for the expansion of the metropolitan semiconductor cluster" through simultaneous establishment of the nation’s only innovation city and enterprise city, the construction of the double-track railway from Yeoju to Wonju, extension of the GTX-D line to Wonju, activation of Wonju Airport, creation of a semiconductor industry-based ecosystem, and designation as an opportunity development special zone, thereby increasing various administrative demands.

Moreover, amid the trend of population decline in local cities and the era of local extinction crisis, Wonju ranked 4th nationwide with a population growth rate of 2.65% over the past four years, attracting investment from 25 companies worth nearly 670 billion KRW in the past two years, creating over 1,230 new jobs, and already handling more administrative demands than metropolitan cities with populations over 500,000.

Won Kang-su, mayor of Wonju, said, “Wonju is already handling more administrative demands than metropolitan cities in terms of population growth rate and corporate attraction,” and added, “Securing metropolitan city special status is essential to timely supply administrative demands.”

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