Gyeonggi Province: "National Land Planning Act Amendment Not Acceptable"

As the government pursues an amendment to the 'National Land Planning Act' to allow large-scale state projects such as new cities to be implemented first and then reflected in urban master plans, Gyeonggi Province is resisting the amendment, citing reasons such as "reckless development."

The province plans to take an active stance by holding a 'Forum on Problems with the National Land Planning Act Amendment' in early next month together with Seoul, which shares the province's opposition to the amendment, as well as neighboring Incheon and South Chungcheong Province.

▲Government's Plan to Amend the Law
The Ministry of Construction and Transportation prepared an amendment to the 'Act on the Planning and Utilization of the National Territory' (Article 4) that would allow large-scale national policy projects such as new cities to be implemented first and then reflected in urban master plans. On the 22nd of last month, the ministry solicited opinions from central government ministries and provincial and municipal governments.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation plans to announce the amendment this month, undergo review by the Legislative and Judicial Affairs Bureau, and submit it to the National Assembly in November.

With the authority to approve urban master plans transferred from the Minister of Construction and Transportation to provincial governors in July, the likelihood of governors rejecting nationally necessary projects has increased. The ministry's rationale for the amendment is the need to recognize exceptions for national plans to enable swift implementation of state projects and eliminate potential unnecessary disputes between local and central governments.

To prevent arbitrary exercise of local urban planning authority, the ministry stated that the scope of national plan projects for which exceptions are recognized should be limited to new city development (3 million pyeong or larger) pursued by central government ministries and the construction of the International Peace City project carried out under the 'Pyeongtaek Base Special Act'.

▲Gyeonggi Province's Position of Opposition
Gyeonggi Province opposes the government's law amendment on grounds that it would lead to reckless development, violate the "plan first, develop later" urban management system, infringe on local autonomy and run counter to decentralization, and damage the greenbelt around the capital region.

The province points out that the law amendment not only contradicts the legislative intent of the National Land Planning Act, which is the "plan first, develop later" principle, but also ignores urban master plans prepared by local governments over a 20-year horizon by incorporating diverse opinions from residents.

Furthermore, if land development projects are pursued as national projects without prior consultation with local governments, urban problems such as shortage of green space and traffic congestion are expected to worsen, potentially causing "reckless development" and "overlapping development" in the capital region, the province argues.

To address these issues, the province has proposed an alternative under which law amendments should be pursued in a direction that applies national project exception provisions only to national policy projects reflected in the Comprehensive National Land Plan and the Capital Region Adjustment Plan, as well as project plans reflected in regional urban plans.

Another solution would be to supplement the law by requiring prior consent through administrative consultation with metropolitan local governments, providing opportunities for local government heads to express their opinions during deliberation by the Central Urban Planning Committee on state projects, and making it mandatory to reflect local government opinions and hold public hearings.

A provincial official said, "It is understood that local governments other than Seoul have no objections to the law amendment," and added, "The damages from the government's large-scale land development projects that ignore urban master plans will be borne entirely by Gyeonggi Province." <Yonhapnews>