Second fast-track planning consultation this month

Zone designation targeted for early next year

Rights distribution and design direction set from the start

Residents attend a reconstruction briefing for the Changdong Jugong 4 complex on Sunday. [Changdong Jugong 4 Reconstruction Promotion Committee]
Residents attend a reconstruction briefing for the Changdong Jugong 4 complex on Sunday. [Changdong Jugong 4 Reconstruction Promotion Committee]

The Changdong Jugong 4 apartment complex in Dobong-gu, Seoul, has received approval to form a reconstruction promotion committee before its redevelopment zone is officially designated. The committee plans to pursue formal association establishment as early as next year, running zone-designation preparations and pre-association groundwork in parallel.

According to industry sources Wednesday, the Changdong Jugong 4 Reconstruction Promotion Committee recently received approval from the Dobong-gu district office to form the committee and has begun preparing follow-up procedures. At a residents' briefing held Sunday at Seoninbong Hall in the Dobong-gu district office, the committee disclosed its planned association establishment schedule and the direction for selecting partner firms.

The committee's formation ahead of zone designation was made possible by a regulatory change that now allows residents to voluntarily organize a promotion committee before a redevelopment zone is formally designated. Under the previous system, committees could only be formed and association establishment procedures pursued sequentially after zone designation. The reform allows redevelopment planning and committee formation to proceed simultaneously.

The committee aims to complete a second consultation under the fast-track integrated planning process this month, then move through public notice and review procedures for the redevelopment plan, targeting zone designation in early next year. In the meantime, it plans to collect association membership consent forms and select partner firms so that the association can be formally established within about two months of zone designation.

The Changdong Jugong 4 complex was completed in 1991 and comprises 10 buildings of up to 15 stories with 1,710 units. It passed a reconstruction safety assessment in April 2024 and applied for fast-track integrated planning consultation in November last year. A master planner has been involved in drawing up the redevelopment plan since July this year.

To reduce disputes among future association members, the committee has decided to establish rights distribution principles from the earliest stage of the project. Criteria for assessing existing assets, allocating new units, and distributing costs and gains — matters typically addressed at the management and disposal stage — will be reviewed starting from the association establishment phase. This will allow members to gauge their future contributions and allocation terms in advance.

The rights distribution framework is expected to factor in the type and size of existing units, land share and location. Methods for calculating the rights of commercial unit holders and those with multiple ownership interests will also be discussed from the outset, with detailed implementation proposals to be sought during the later process of selecting a redevelopment firm.

The committee has also decided to change how it selects a design firm. Rather than simply comparing proposals submitted by competing firms, the committee will first set the complex's design direction and incorporate that into the design brief. Plans are also under consideration to reflect the surrounding natural environment — including Choansan, Dobongsan, Bukhansan and the Jungnangcheon stream — in the complex's design.

Current concept plans include positioning residential towers to take advantage of views of Choansan, adding terraces on lower floors, and creating a central plaza featuring a hanok pavilion and pond. A design reinterpreting the traditional market-arcade style in a contemporary idiom is also being considered for the complex's commercial spaces.

"We plan to make full use of the regulatory change that allows zone designation and association establishment preparations to proceed at the same time, in order to shorten the project timeline as much as possible," a Changdong Jugong 4 Reconstruction Promotion Committee official said. "We will also work out the rights distribution framework and design direction in detail from the early stages to minimize conflicts that could arise later in the project."


quq@heraldcorp.com