Suwon Special City Lowers Barriers for Shinbit Town Project...Expands Target Area to 30,000 ㎡

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-seong] Suwon Special City has significantly lowered the participation threshold for the 'Shinbit Town' project, which renovates aging low-rise residential areas.

By raising the target area limit by 10,000 ㎡ and entirely eliminating stringent selection conditions such as housing density requirements, the city aims to bring previously excluded areas that failed to meet requirements onto the project track.

According to Suwon City on the 7th, the city will begin recruitment of candidate sites for the '2026 Suwon-style Small-scale Housing Maintenance Management District (Shinbit Town)' starting on the 10th.

The most significant change is in the scale criteria. The target area for recruitment, previously set at 20,000 ㎡ or less, has been expanded to 30,000 ㎡ or less. Additionally, selection conditions that previously hindered applications during the application phase—including housing density, unit density, undersized parcels, and housing road accessibility—have been removed.

The remaining requirement is that aged or deteriorated buildings comprise 50% or more of the area. Resident approval must be obtained at 50% or above based on both the number of landowners and land area, and 30% or above for each project implementation district.

The project implementation district must be surrounded by urban planning roads with a width of 4 meters or more, and up to two districts per candidate site can be grouped together. Areas that have already secured consent approval for association establishment may apply to request relaxation of certain standards such as area in accordance with relevant laws.

However, areas that have already applied to or been selected in public redevelopment, redevelopment, or reconstruction candidate site recruitment are excluded. Urban regeneration areas, national heritage protection zones, and historic and cultural environment preservation areas require prior consultation with relevant departments.

The city plans to select up to 3 sites based on resident approval rates, degree of deterioration, urgency of maintenance, and suitability of the district. Final selection will be made in February 2027. Selected areas will receive support for management plan establishment from the city, and after Gyeonggi Province approval and notification, individual small-scale housing maintenance projects will proceed.

Once designated as a Shinbit Town, administrative procedures are simplified, allowing the project timeline to be advanced by approximately 2 to 4 years compared to existing maintenance projects. Burdens from height increases when supplying rental housing are reduced, and floor area ratios are relaxed when constructing infrastructure and rental housing. Costs for establishing management plans are also subsidized.

Application forms can be downloaded from the public notice on the Suwon City website. Applicants must complete the recruitment application and resident consent forms and submit them directly to the Suwon City Urban Maintenance Division, Maintenance Project Team.

A city official stated, "By expanding the recruitment area and relaxing application requirements, we have made it possible for more aging low-rise residential areas to participate," and added, "We will actively support resident-led maintenance projects to be promoted swiftly."