Seoul speeds up redevelopment projects... '30-day' rule for project implementer designations takes effect

[Financial News] The Seoul Metropolitan Government will standardize the deadline for designating project implementers for redevelopment projects at within 30 days and consultations with relevant agencies at within 10 days. It aims to establish standards for procedures that have been delayed because no statutory processing deadlines were set, accelerating the supply of housing.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on the 27th that it had drawn up a plan to standardize processing standards for redevelopment projects, incorporating these measures, and would apply it immediately in the field.
Some autonomous districts recently delayed project implementer designation procedures for months, citing the absence of a statutory processing deadline. The city aims to prevent this. Earlier, on the 26th, it formally urged the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to explicitly stipulate a 30-day processing deadline in relevant laws, including the Act on the Improvement of Urban Areas and Residential Environments.
The interdepartmental consultation process for applications for approval will also be improved. According to the city, upon receipt of an application, the agenda will be sent in one batch to all relevant agencies and departments, while public inspection and consultations will be conducted concurrently. In principle, applications may not be delayed or rejected on the grounds that a preliminary review or in-person report has not been completed.
The consultation period will be standardized at no more than 10 days. It may be extended by five days once, but the city will adopt a deemed-consultation system under which, if there is no response by the consultation deadline or no extension is requested, the matter will be treated as 'no opinion (consent to the original proposal)' and subsequent procedures will proceed.
The time allowed for submitting supplementary materials and the number of requests will also be limited to make the process more predictable for project implementers. A deadline of no more than 10 days will be given for supplementary materials, and to prevent repeated requests for further materials, the number of rounds will be capped at two. At the end of the 10-day consultation period, the opinions gathered from relevant agencies will be conveyed together as the first request for supplementary materials. A second request will be made only in exceptional cases where the materials submitted in response to the first request are incomplete.
These processing standards will take effect immediately after the plan is established. Myeong No-jun, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Housing Office, said, "We will continue to actively identify and improve unnecessary causes of administrative delays so that housing can be supplied quickly."
[email protected] Kwon Jun-ho Reporter