Gyeonggi Province's Urban Regeneration Regulatory Improvement Efforts Prove Successful

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hun Reporter] Following the amendment to the Special Act on Promotion and Support of Urban Regeneration (August 27, 2019), the enforcement ordinance of which will be amended and implemented on November 28, urban regeneration projects in the province are expected to gain momentum.

In particular, the amended ordinance introduces a 'negative' regulatory approach to minor changes in the revitalization plan, which is the implementation plan for urban regeneration projects, by only enumerating matters prohibited by law and allowing all other matters, thereby expanding the scope of permitted changes and simplifying the amendment procedure. This is a matter that Gyeonggi Province has consistently proposed since last year.
Minor matters refer to changes excluding increases in total project costs or reductions of 10% or more, or the establishment and closure of urban regeneration projects, while administrative procedure simplification involves exempting minor changes from public hearings, consultations with local assemblies, and committee deliberation.

According to the province on November 28, the government has selected 265 locations nationwide as of 2019 through public recruitment for the Urban Regeneration New Deal project, which it is promoting as a state policy task. Among these, Gyeonggi Province has been selected with 31 locations in 14 cities including Suwon and Goyang (12%), with the largest-scale project in the nation currently underway.
The Urban Regeneration New Deal project is an initiative led by residents to revitalize aging residential areas and declining inner cities, with urban regeneration plans established through a bottom-up approach via resident participation.
In this process, as various resident opinions are gathered, plan changes inevitably occur frequently, and issues have been continuously raised regarding project delays due to administrative procedures under the law for project plan amendments.
Accordingly, the province has repeatedly proposed institutional improvement measures to expand the scope of minor changes to the revitalization plan and simplify administrative procedures to the central government since last year, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has accepted these proposals.

Prior to this, the province had continuously proposed to the government and National Assembly, including the Ministry of Interior and Safety and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the necessity of exempting urban regeneration projects from local finance investment review, resulting in amendments (May 17, 2019) to the local finance investment project review rules to exempt investment review for urban regeneration projects that undergo deliberation by the Urban Regeneration Special Committee.
Given that investment review generally takes a minimum of 5 months to a maximum of over 2 years to implement, the amended provisions are expected to dramatically shorten project periods when applied.
Along with this, the province has proposed to the central government measures including the establishment of special provisions to exclude the formulation and amendment of shared asset management plans and regulatory rationalization measures to ease the cost burden of underground installation of electrical facilities in urban regeneration areas, and following various efforts including visits to the National Assembly to explain legislative necessity, a revised bill was submitted to the National Assembly on October 31 (sponsored by National Assemblyman Kim Chul-min).

Lee Gun-yong, Director of the Urban Regeneration Division, stated, "Based on this amended ordinance, we will promote the Urban Regeneration New Deal project, which is entering its third year this year, with a sense of speed so that residents can feel the benefits," and added, "In addition to financial support, we will collaborate with the central government to actively identify unreasonable regulations and concentrate our administrative resources on presenting alternatives."