Gyeonggi Province Announces 10 Major Tasks for Improving Greenbelt System in 2014

Gyeonggi Province is pursuing system improvements including deferring enforcement fines for illegal use-change barns scattered across greenbelts in Hanam, Namyangju, and Siheung, and establishing management plans.

Gyeonggi Province announced 10 major greenbelt system improvement tasks for 2014 containing such measures, and stated on the 29th that it plans to request system improvements from the National Assembly and the government.

The 10 system improvement tasks announced by the province consist of five cases in the area of easing business activity challenges, three cases in easing municipal fiscal burdens, and two cases in delegating authority and resolving residents' inconveniences.

In areas such as Hanam, Namyangju, and Siheung, there have been many cases where barns—the originally permitted use—were customarily changed to warehouses or factories due to problems with odors, wastewater, and scenery, which has served as a burden on small and medium enterprises due to enforcement fine collection.

Accordingly, the province plans to propose to the government a measure to defer enforcement fines for a certain period until concrete management plans including clustering of illegal animal and plant-related facilities are established, and plans to improve regulations so that barns in greenbelts designated as livestock farming restricted areas can also be used as storage warehouses for manufactured goods.

Additionally, the province decided to pursue improvements to ease business activity challenges including ▲easing restrictions on factory expansions in greenbelts, ▲expanding private sector participation ratios in development projects in released areas, and ▲streamlining procedures such as omitting approval processes from the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport when expanding existing buildings.

In the area of easing municipal fiscal burdens, the province plans to propose to the government that 21 municipalities and counties in the province managing greenbelts collect more than 50 percent of nationwide conservation burden fees nationwide, yet only receive 22 percent in support for resident convenience project budgets, so more than 50 percent should be used in the corresponding areas.

Kim Tae-jeong, director of the Regional Policy Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated that "when related laws are amended, significant effects are expected in terms of investment activation and job creation as well as reducing administrative costs for area management."

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province achieved results this year through greenbelt deregulation efforts including reducing the scale of greenbelt releases (200,000 ㎡ or more → 200,000 ㎡ or less), improving methods for purchasing project sites and securing rental housing after release, and expanding parking space area requirements for restaurants (200 ㎡→300 ㎡).