Public contribution collected in Gangnam to be available for development in Gangbuk

Sep 10, 2020, 08:40 am

AsiaToday reporter Kim In-hee

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is moving to enact the ‘expansion of use of public contributions’ that it has continuously suggested to the government. The Seoul city and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will push to revise the ‘Act on Planning and Utilization of National Territory’ within the year. The revised bill is expected to pass at the regular session of the National Assembly at the end of this year at the soonest, and the revised law to be applied starting March next year following a legislative notice early next year.

According to the city on Wednesday, the revised bill will enable the ‘public contribution’ collected from donations through large-scale development projects in Gangnam to be used anywhere in Seoul, including underdeveloped areas in Gangbuk. Under the current National Territory Planning Act, public contributions can only be used by the corresponding local autonomous entity.

Public contribution refers to cash donated by a land developer in response to the city government’s approval to change urban development plans on certain land site, such as increasing the floor area ratio. The revision of the law has been insisted for years by the late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. “Public contribution gained from the Global Business Center (GBC) development project should be spent for all parts of Seoul, instead of limiting I to Gangnam,” Park told AsiaToday in a phone interview back in July.

The late mayor had said the city government plans to spend the development profits generated by the GBC development project on constructing Gangbukhoengdan line, a future light rail connecting the city’s eastern and western regions.

Public contribution from the development of Hyundai Motor’s GBC in Gangnam amounts to 1.75 trillion won, which is 81 percent of the total public contribution of Seoul planned from 2020 to 2021.

If the bill is approved, the scope of use of public contribution will be expanded from district to city unit.

However, the expanded use of public contribution will not be applied to every development project. It will be limited to large-scale development projects where public contribution can be used within the scope of the current autonomous region.

The city has continuously suggested to revise the law to expand the use of public contribution, and finally prepared a plan to improve the system following a series of intensive discussions with the land ministry since March. The improvement plan will be carried out through the amendment to the National Territory Planning Act initiated by Democratic Party lawmaker Chun Joon-ho.

#public contribution #Gangnam #Seoul metropolitan government