Pocheon Airfield Opens Path to Development With Relief of Surrounding Military Restrictions

The lifting of military restrictions on a 23-square-kilometer area surrounding Pocheon Army Airfield is expected to open pathways for local residents to exercise property rights smoothly and accelerate regional development and economic vitalization.

According to Gyeonggi Province on the 27th, this follows decisions made at the Ministry of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff's "Second Half 2016 Military Base and Military Facility Protection Review Committee." The decisions include the "lifting of restricted protection zones around Pocheon Army Airfield" and the "expansion of administrative delegation of military consultation work for Flight Safety Zone 4 of the airfield."

The review committee decided to lift restricted protection zones covering 10,917,256 square kilometers (approximately 3.3 million pyeong), or 40 percent of the entire 27,575,902 square meters (approximately 8.34 million pyeong) of the Pocheon Army Airfield military facility protection zone.

As a result of this protection zone lifting decision, approximately 2,700 households in Gasan-myeon, Gunnae-myeon, Pocheon-dong, Seondan-dong, and Sohheul-eup can now conduct development and new or renovated construction without military unit consultation.

Additionally, the height limit for "administrative delegation of military consultation work" for Flight Safety Zone 4 of Pocheon Army Airfield has been expanded from the existing 12 meters to 45 meters.

This applies to 12,132,850 square meters (3.67 million pyeong) in Gunnae-myeon, Gasan-myeon, Pocheon-dong, and Seondan-dong areas.

With this decision, approximately 2,960 households in the region can now receive construction permits up to 45 meters—equivalent to the height of a 15-story apartment building—by obtaining approval from Pocheon City alone without prior military consultation.

Notably, the construction permit timeline, which previously took approximately 30 days, has been significantly reduced to 3-5 days, and residents are relieved of the inconvenience of preparing various required documents such as site maps, cadastral maps, and change plan drawings.

The "restricted protection zone lifting" measure will take effect following a Ministry of Public Administration and Security notice, while the "administrative delegation expansion" measure will take effect after the conclusion of a business agreement between Pocheon City and the 15th Aviation Group.

Park Tae-young, director of military-civilian cooperation at Gyeonggi Province, stated, "We will continue to actively address military-related issues in the province and make sustained efforts to achieve outcomes of mutual prosperity among the public, private, and military sectors for the development of northern Gyeonggi."