Nowon-gu District Chief Seo Jun-o surveys the area around Taereung Ipgu Station. [Nowon-gu]
Nowon-gu District Chief Seo Jun-o surveys the area around Taereung Ipgu Station. [Nowon-gu]

Nowon-gu announced Wednesday that a revitalization project for the area around Taereung Ipgu Station will move into full swing after a revised district-unit plan for the area was approved with amendments at the 13th Joint Urban and Architecture Committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, held Tuesday.

The target area — centered on 670 Gongneung-dong — sits within 3 kilometers of eight universities and has a strong base of youth activity, including a youth culture street and youth-run shops. Despite its prime location as a transit-oriented area served by subway lines 6 and 7 and its commercial zoning, development has stalled due to rigid lot-division rules and various regulations.

The centerpiece of the district-unit plan overhaul is the designation of a special planning zone, which lays the groundwork for large-scale integrated development in the commercial district. The district will designate one densely residential area as a special planning zone to strengthen mixed-use functions and encourage privately led integrated development. The zone will operate for three years from the date of its official designation, and integrated development projects within it may build up to 100 meters in height. The district said it will actively provide administrative support once private development gets underway.

In addition, for general development sites outside the special planning zone, the district has significantly eased development standards to give private developers greater flexibility — scrapping regulations on maximum development scale and mandatory joint development designations, and raising the base floor-area ratio to as high as 800 percent.

The district plans to incorporate the committee's amendment conditions into a revised district-unit plan, re-publish it for public review, and then issue an official designation change for the Taereung Ipgu Station district-unit planning zone.

"This district-unit plan overhaul has laid the foundation for creative private-sector development through the designation of a special planning zone and bold regulatory reform," Nowon-gu District Chief Seo Jun-o said. "We will develop the area around Taereung Ipgu Station into a leading youth hub in the northeastern part of Seoul — a place where young people can work, live and enjoy themselves — and build Nowon into a future economic city."


ikson@heraldcorp.com