Seoul is introducing an integrated planning system for Moa Town, its redevelopment program for aging low-rise residential districts, and will begin accepting applications for candidate sites. The city plans to designate 100 candidate areas by 2030, creating a base for about 80,000 new homes.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government said on the 12th that it will open the call for Moa Town candidate sites under the new integrated planning system starting on the 13th. Under the system, the public sector and residents draw up a Moa Town management plan while simultaneously moving to establish a redevelopment association. Applications will be accepted from Nov. 2, with the first sites to be selected this year.
The city aims to cut the time from site selection to groundbreaking to about 4.5 years from roughly six years, a reduction of 1.5 years. Previously, district offices or residents drew up management plans on their own. Now the city and district offices will prepare plans jointly with a resident participation group. The two procedures — management planning and association formation — will also run in parallel rather than in sequence.
The city and district offices will pursue what they call advance designation, approving and announcing a management plan that first covers legally required items such as the Moa Town boundary, land-use plans and infrastructure. Residents will be able to collect consent forms for establishing an association once district offices issue numbered consent documents during the public review and briefing stage for advance designation.
Each Moa Town will have a public-private body called Moa One Team. It brings together residents, the city, district offices, an integrated Moa planner and the Seoul Housing & Urban Development Corporation (SH) to cooperate from planning through implementation. Residents handle association formation and project implementation, while district offices support management plan proposals and association setup. The city is responsible for approving management plans and for overall progress management.
The city is also taking steps to improve the quality of project plans. It will draw up architectural guidelines for Moa housing to set directions on building layout, height and form at the management planning stage, weighing both public benefit and project viability. The guidelines will cover special architectural districts, site preparation and complex layout plans, landscape plans, outdoor space and circulation plans, and the placement of shared resident facilities.
SH will support feasibility analysis and estimates of individual contributions when consent forms for association formation are collected. Through appraisals of existing assets, architectural planning and appraisals of post-project assets, it will calculate estimated project costs, the proportional ratio and individual estimated contributions, which residents can use in the association formation process.
Eligible areas must span at least 20,000 square meters but less than 100,000 square meters, with at least 50% of buildings classified as aging, both overall and for each planned project site. Areas cannot apply if they are already designated or slated for redevelopment, fall within a redevelopment promotion district or an urban development district, or are applying for or already pursuing other routes such as the city's fast-track planning or standard redevelopment. Areas where 25% of landowners and other rights holders, or holders of more than a third of the land area, are opposed are also excluded.
For each planned project zone, applicants must secure consent from at least 60% of landowners and other rights holders and from holders of at least half the land area. Once the project sponsor secures the required consent rate and submits an application and consent forms to the district office, the district holds a resident briefing, reviews the documents and consults relevant departments before applying to the city. Consent forms may also be collected through an electronic signature system designated by the city.
The city plans to select 100 candidate sites by 2030, creating a base for an additional 80,000 Moa housing units. It will designate around 20 sites a year, taking into account the urgency of housing improvement and local conditions. The publicly backed Moa Town track, previously selected through a separate call once a year, will be folded into the new process, with applicants able to indicate whether they want public participation at the time of application.
Measures to curb speculation are also being tightened. The rights assessment date — the cutoff that determines eligibility for a new unit — will be moved up to the date the project boundary is disclosed, from the date an application is received by the city or district office. Requirements for entitlement to a new unit will also be tougher. Previously, filing a construction start notice by the rights assessment date was sufficient; now applicants must hold sectional ownership by the day after that date.
The existing resident-proposal route will be available only through the end of this year. Areas that have been preparing a resident proposal can still pursue a Moa Town under that route if they secure the required consent rate and apply to their district office this year. They may also convert to the integrated planning system using consent forms already collected for a resident proposal, in which case the rights assessment date and related terms will follow the resident-proposal rules.
"Under integrated planning, residents and the public sector draw up plans together while residents simultaneously prepare to establish an association, which shortens the timeline and brings housing supply forward," said Myung Noh-joon, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's housing bureau. "We will support these projects from site selection through groundbreaking so that residents of aging low-rise neighborhoods can move into new homes as soon as possible."