President Yoon Unveils Plan to Lift Green Belt, Boost Industrial Growth

President Yoon Suk Yeol announced on the 21st that he will “completely overhaul the standards that were a decisive obstacle to lift the greenbelt for the first time in 20 years.” This means changing the uniform greenbelt standards that prohibited development because of the high altitude and steep slope.

President Yoon, while presiding over the thirteenth public forum themed “Korea Again! A New Leap for Ulsan and Korea” in Ulsan in the afternoon, said, “I will keep my promise to allow Ulsan to lift the greenbelt boldly.”

He emphasized, “In the case of local areas, even if the greenbelt has a high conservation-grade, it should be changed if necessary to make it easier to use,” and “Land with excellent infrastructure such as railroad stations or existing urban areas will be lowered in standards to make it easier to use economically, no matter how high the conservation grade is.”

The Greenbelt was intensively designated in the 1970s to prevent urban sprawl and speculation, which have been discussed since the 1960s.

President Yoon evaluated that the Greenbelt played a role in leading orderly and efficient development. However, he pointed out that as our country’s industry and cities have grown rapidly, there have been many cases where the Greenbelt restricts the creation of advanced industrial complexes to create jobs and inject vitality into the region.

He pointed out, “Especially in Ulsan, all the roads from Ulju County to downtown Ulsan are greenbelts,” and “In the past, the greenbelt, located in Ulju County in Ulsan, which should have been on outskirts, is crossing the center of the integrated city.”

President Yoon announced his plan to lift the Greenbelt in Ulsan because this issue is linked to the future development of Ulsan. Automobile, shipbuilding, and petrochemical industries, which were born in Ulsan in 1962 during the Park Chung Hee government, are currently in the position of global leaders, but securing new industrial sites is cited as the top priority task to move forward as a “first mover.”

In the same context, President Yoon announced that he would innovate agricultural land regulations to develop advanced agriculture and loosen regulations on leftover agricultural land in industrial complexes, residential land, and road development. The plan is to allow advanced agricultural facilities such as experience facilities and vertical farms to move in and to allow the construction of community welfare facilities such as schools, hospitals, and libraries.

At the forum on this day, Bang Ki Seon, the Chief of the State Affairs Coordination Office, reported on the plan to “expand the freedom of land use,” which includes detailed content on the reform of greenbelt regulations and improvement of agricultural land regulations.

“In cases of not only the national strategic industries currently reflected but also the important regional strategic industries, the proposal of lifting greenbelt should be excluded from the total amount, and the greenbelt with class 1 or 2 systems from the environmental assessment, which cannot be developed, should be utilized,” said Bang.

He also said, “Through this, it is expected that regional investment will be promoted and vitality will be injected into the region.”