首尔市要求钟路区加快昌信9、10区重建项目运营商指定程序

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has sent an official letter to Jongno District asking it to move quickly on designating project operators for the Changsin 9 and 10 redevelopment districts. Residents who met the legally required consent threshold applied for the designation in June, but with the process stalled for more than two months, the city stepped in to ask the district office to complete the administrative procedure without further delay. The intervention comes as the central government and the ruling party push a plan to transfer permit authority for redevelopment zones of 500 households or fewer to district offices, fueling concerns that redevelopment and rebuilding timelines could be disrupted by the policy preferences of individual district mayors.
According to the redevelopment industry on the 1st, the city sent a letter titled "Request for Cooperation and Submission of Materials Related to Redevelopment Project Implementation" to the Jongno district mayor on the 28th of last month. In the letter, the city asked the district to review and process the applications for project operator designation in the Changsin 9 and 10 districts promptly. It also requested a response by the 4th of this month explaining the reasons for the delay, the main points at issue, the review conducted so far, and the plan and expected timeline for handling the matter. It is unusual for the city to directly demand expedited handling of a project operator designation, a procedure that falls under district office jurisdiction.
The Changsin 9 and 10 districts were selected as candidate sites for redevelopment under the city's fast-track planning program in December 2022 and were designated as redevelopment zones in November last year. Changsin 9, which secured a resident consent rate of 75.86% and met the legal requirement, applied on June 11 to have Daishin Asset Trust designated as project operator. Changsin 10, with a consent rate of 75.38%, submitted its application for Korea Investment Real Estate Trust a day earlier, on the 10th.
Under the current Act on the Improvement of Urban Areas and Residential Environments, when an application for project operator designation meets the requirements, the administrative authority is to issue a public notice of designation unless there is a specific disqualifying reason. The notice typically comes within two weeks, or a month at the latest. The Jongno district office, however, has withheld the notice for nearly three months. On the 24th of last month, residents submitted 2,500 petitions to the district calling for prompt designation of the project operators.
Residents believe the delay reflects the policy judgment of Jongno District Mayor Yoo Chan-jong regarding redevelopment projects. At a meeting with residents on July 24, Yoo said, "Having a consent rate of 75% or 80% is not a reason to push ahead unconditionally — there has to be proper consultation with the district office and with residents." Yoo also said, "There are a lot of property speculators mixed in, and that is why they want to wrap this up quickly and hand it over to a trust company." The stance contrasts with most district mayors in Seoul, who have made revitalizing redevelopment their top campaign pledge and are pursuing it actively.
The Changsin 9 and 10 case draws attention because it intersects with the dispute over the transfer of authority for small-scale redevelopment projects being pushed by the government and the ruling party. Of the nine major permits required in a redevelopment project, district offices handle seven, including approval of the union's establishment, approval of the project implementation plan and approval of the management and disposal plan. The Seoul city government's authority is limited to two: deliberation on redevelopment zone designation and integrated deliberation at the project implementation stage. The prevailing view is that transferring zone designation authority to district offices would not have a major effect on project progress, given that district mayors already hold the core permit powers over project implementation and management and disposal.
The Changsin 9 and 10 districts each exceed 500 households and are therefore not subject to the transfer under review by the government and the ruling party. Still, the city is focusing on the fact that a project has already been delayed at the project operator designation stage handled by a district office, following a change of district mayor and a shift in policy. If zone designation authority is also transferred, the argument goes, projects could be at the mercy of a district mayor's policy leanings and a district office's administrative capacity from the very first gate. Some also point out that if policies on redevelopment differ from district to district, gaps in project speed and housing supply timelines could widen within Seoul itself. A Jongno district office official said, "We have no particular position on the city's cooperation letter," adding, "Since we formed a redevelopment and rebuilding task force on the 24th of last month, the designation of project operators for Changsin 9 and 10 will be discussed there."