Bill to Shrink Greenbelt by 39M Pyeong

Starting next month, 39.33 million pyeong of the greenbelt zone in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi will be dissolved step by step over 20 years.

This is an area equal to 15.7 times of Yeouido.

As the dissolution of the greenbelt, which has been suspended for seven years, is taking form, development plans for the area are expected to arise from the second half of this year.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT) announced that a bill of such content was recently sent to the Central City Planning Committee, and will be finalized late next month.

The area to be dissolved is 32.67 million pyeong in the Gyeonggi area, 3.94 million pyeong in Seoul, and 2.72 million pyeong in Incheon. About 1.68 million pyeong of the Songpa New Town development area that was tied down by the greenbelt, and 13 million pyeong arranged for public housing are included within this area.

Due to collisions of opinion between the three municipalities of Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi, the greenbelt dissolution plan has been discussed since 1999; finally, the local governments of the three areas have come to an agreement about the size of the dissolution early this year.

MOTC’s head of the city policy team, Kim Byeong-su, said, “When the greenbelt dissolution plan is finalized next month, each municipality will be able to set about on a development plan,” and added, “There are no plans of dissolution of the greenbelt in the metropolitan city areas other than this one.”

Segok-dong in Gangnam and Umyeon-dong in Seocho are included in Seoul’s dissolution area.

In the Incheon and Gyeonggi areas, settled areas of over 20 families, areas with low environmental value, and areas that are being used by the government- 700 places in all- are included.

The land that is being dissolved from the greenbelt will be for housing, industrial use, and public housing.

The municipal offices of Seoul and Gyeonggi requested more land in the Songpa New Town area be added, but accounting to opposition in the government, it has not been reflected.

Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com