A reconstruction site in Seocho-gu, seen from Han River Park in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. [Herald Business DB]
A reconstruction site in Seocho-gu, seen from Han River Park in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. [Herald Business DB]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will elevate oversight of redevelopment and reconstruction projects to the deputy mayor level as it works to break ground on 310,000 housing units by 2031. The city plans to directly monitor stalled projects and resolve bottlenecks — including permitting delays and resident disputes — to accelerate housing supply.

The city announced Friday that it will hold a "special progress acceleration meeting" chaired by the second administrative deputy mayor, bringing together officials from all 25 autonomous districts to review the status of redevelopment and reconstruction projects and discuss recovery measures for zones falling behind schedule.

The meeting is the first since the city elevated its chief progress-management officer from the architecture planning director to the second administrative deputy mayor.

Since announcing its housing supply acceleration plan last July, the city has held 17 working-level meetings. Under the ninth elected administration, the city is raising the project management control tower to the deputy mayor level to drive faster progress on reconstruction projects and meet the 310,000-unit ground-breaking target by 2031.

Through the progress acceleration meetings, the city has been classifying and managing redevelopment zones across Seoul according to its standard processing timeline. Zones are sorted into three tiers: A-rated for projects advancing ahead of schedule, B-rated for those on track, and C-rated for those experiencing delays, with tailored management applied to each.

The system is already showing results. A review of the 15 most recent inspections found that C-rated delay zones fell by 20 percent, while A-rated fast-track zones rose by 9 percent and B-rated on-track zones increased by 11 percent.

The city said the progress acceleration meetings are functioning as a management framework that identifies delay factors early and restores project momentum.

The special meeting will be attended by Second Administrative Deputy Mayor Kim Sung-bo, key senior officials involved in reconstruction projects including the architecture planning director, and progress-management officers from all 25 districts. Participants will review the status of each district and discuss recovery measures for zones where delays have emerged.

The city also plans to call on the districts for active cooperation. Most permitting authority — apart from Seoul's urban planning committee review and integrated deliberation — rests with the individual districts, so expediting follow-on procedures such as project implementation plan approval and management and disposal plan approval is essential to bringing forward ground-breaking dates.

The city will also support capacity-building at the district level, including by adding new courses to the Seoul Human Resources Development Institute curriculum. It plans to ask each district to assign experienced reconstruction personnel to the right roles and expand hands-on training to raise staff expertise.

The city is also reviewing incentives to reward districts that push progress forward. It plans to link reconstruction performance to work evaluations and fiscal incentives, and to reflect project outcomes in institutional and individual commendations as well as personnel transfers.

The city said it will use the special meeting as an opportunity to strengthen its cooperative framework with the districts and focus its administrative resources on resolving problems in zones delayed by resident disputes and complex permitting procedures.

"Progress management for reconstruction projects must become a powerful tool through which the city, the districts and project stakeholders communicate and remove obstacles," Deputy Mayor Kim said. "I will personally chair the progress acceleration meeting once a month going forward, and through rigorous progress management we will make sure we hit the 310,000-unit ground-breaking target by 2031."


quq@heraldcorp.com