The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea are pushing ahead with a plan to transfer approval authority for redevelopment and rebuilding projects of 500 units or fewer from metropolitan leaders such as the Seoul mayor to district chiefs. Kim Young-bae, chair of the party's Seoul chapter, said at a meeting with the party's district chiefs in Seoul on the 27th that "the time has come for proper urban planning, starting with solving the housing shortage facing the younger generation," adding that "we also need to discuss transferring urban planning authority over small-scale improvement projects and local development to the autonomous districts." The remarks reiterated a policy direction the party and government set out at a high-level consultation on the 24th of this month.
The party and government cite faster housing supply as the rationale for the transfer, but the argument is unconvincing on several counts. According to the Seoul city government, district chiefs already hold seven of the nine key approval powers over improvement projects, including authorization of union formation, project implementation and management disposal plans. The Seoul mayor holds only two — deliberation for designating project zones and integrated deliberation for project implementation. Handing over the remaining powers would effectively remove the Seoul mayor from housing supply policy altogether.
The bigger problem is that the idea threatens the foundation of Seoul's urban planning and carries a high risk of serious disorderly development. Improvement projects are not merely a matter of tearing down old homes and building new ones. They are comprehensive urban planning that must be accompanied by infrastructure — expanded road networks, parks and green space, and water and sewer systems. That is why the metropolitan leader, who draws the blueprint for the city as a whole, must serve as the control tower. If all 25 district chiefs exercise approval authority, the pace of improvement projects will vary from district to district, and gaps between neighborhoods will follow as surely as night follows day.
That the party and government have gone as far as proposing a transfer that lacks both justification and practical effect raises suspicions of a maneuver to strip Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon of his authority after he criticized the government's housing supply policy. The ruling bloc has already passed a bill allowing the land minister, alongside the Seoul mayor, to designate land transaction permit zones. It is also pursuing a measure that would let the land minister designate and lift improvement zones. Continuing this contest for control will only deepen confusion in the market and make it harder for housing supply measures to gain speed. The party, the government and the Seoul city government should stop this wasteful conflict and put their heads together on substantive ways to expand housing supply.
