Gyeonggi Province Approves '2040 Suwon Master Plan'...Planned Population of 1.28 Million

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Kim Gap-dong] Gyeonggi Province gave final approval on the 5th to the '2040 Suwon Master Plan (Draft)' submitted by Suwon Special City.

The approved '2040 Suwon Master Plan' is scheduled to be released on the Suwon City website in February.

The '2040 Suwon Master Plan' is the top-level long-term comprehensive development plan presenting Suwon City's future and development direction, containing policies and strategies for sustainable land management.

As a key element, the target planned population for 2040 was set at 1.28 million, taking into account various development projects, redevelopment of aged planned cities, and population projections from Statistics Korea.

Among Suwon City's total administrative area of 121.09㎢, 5.711㎢ was designated as urbanization-scheduled area in preparation for future urban development, and the existing developed area of 56.835㎢ was designated as urbanized land, with the remaining 58.544㎢ designated as conservation area, finalizing the land use plan.

The spatial structure was reorganized from the existing 1 main center, 5 sub-centers, and 1 regional center to 1 main center and 5 sub-centers, taking into account flexibility of urban growth, future-orientation, balanced development, and spatial construction that can realize a carbon-neutral city, as well as systematic management.

Living zones are divided into 6 regions: North Suwon, West Suwon, South Suwon, Gwanggyo, Hwaseong, and Youngtong, with each region containing development strategies including creation of cultural and complex content spaces, implementation of eco-friendly smart cities, pursuit of cutting-edge self-sufficient cities, and improvement of aging residential environments.

The transportation plan reflects road and railway plans presented in higher-level plans such as the National Railroad Network Plan and related plans, and also presents plans for expanding public transportation and eco-friendly transportation to achieve carbon neutrality as well as establishing a smart city-based transportation system aligned with the city's future vision.

Park Hyun-seok, Director of the Urban Policy Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "Along with the approval of the 2040 Suwon Master Plan, through the 'North Suwon Techno Valley' being pursued by Gyeonggi Province, we will construct the Gyeonggi Opportunity Town and the southern Gyeonggi AI knowledge industry belt," and added, "This will be an opportunity to strengthen Suwon City's urban self-generating capacity by utilizing space and human resources considering each university's characteristics, laying the foundation for growth as a sustainable city."