Junghoon Kang Adjunct Professor at Kookmin University Law School
An ad copy for an apartment in the past that said, ‘Where you live tells who you are’ created a social repercussion. During the Roh Tae-woo administration, the first phase of new city construction, represented by ‘1 million housing units’, gave hope to the common people to live in a good house and raise children in a good environment.
In April 1989, the government announced plans to build five first-phase new towns in the suburbs of Seoul to stabilize skyrocketing house prices and solve the housing shortage. Move-in was completed at the end of 2017, and a large-scale residential town with 292,000 households with a total of 1.17 million residents was born.
Thirty years have passed since then. The first-generation new town that drew attention at the time has now become an old apartment. The government recently announced the main contents of the ‘Special Act on Maintenance and Support for Aging Planned City’ for the development of old apartments in the 1st new city, which was a pledge of the presidential election in March last year. I would like to look at the contents to be included in the relevant special law announced by the government, and consider the migration measures that need to be supplemented.
First, the scope of the aging planning city. The scope includes housing land of 1 million square meters or more that has elapsed 20 years or more since the completion of the housing site development project in accordance with related laws such as the ‘Housing Site Development Promotion Act’. Setting a standard of 20 years or more following the completion of the housing site development project, rather than 30 years, which is the standard for aging facilities, is highly appreciated for enabling systematic planning and response before the city deteriorates.
Second, for orderly and systematic maintenance, the grounds for the Basic Policy for Rehabilitation of Aging Planned City, which is a guideline established by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the detailed Basic Plan for Reorganization of Aging Planned City established by local governments were clarified. The basic policy is a guideline for the basic plan, and the basic plan is an administrative plan established by the head of a city or county targeting a specific aging planning city. Like the basic policy, it is established every 10 years and its feasibility reviewed every 5 years is very encouraging. .
Third, the designating authority, such as the mayor or county head, can designate the ‘retirement planning city special maintenance area’ as an area where projects for urban regeneration are carried out according to the basic plan. When designated as a special maintenance zone, city and building regulations such as floor area ratio and building-to-land ratio and safety diagnosis regulations are alleviated and applied, and various support and special cases stipulated by special laws are granted.
Fourth, considering that the special maintenance zone is a zone where projects with public interests such as urban function improvement, urban reconstruction, and implementation of migration measures are carried out together, various special cases and support items were granted. Reconstruction safety diagnosis induces integrated development to strengthen urban functions, while exempting or mitigating the application to improve residents’ life safety and quality of life is evaluated as administration for residents.
In order for the special maintenance zone to proceed smoothly, the migration plan must be smooth above all else. In this special law, the obligation to establish migration measures, which was the responsibility of the project implementer, is led by local governments and supported by the government, which is interpreted as a green light for the unstable migration measures.
Now is the time to change the perception that ‘a house is not buying, but living’. It is hoped that the government’s reorganization of the aging planning city will be promoted with a sense of speed so that the common people will not suffer because of their houses.