The Korean growth-management programs: issues, problems and possible reforms

Abstract

Planning officials in Korea have taken bold steps to deal with the pressure associated with growth and development. Major instruments that have been utilized include conventional zoning regulations, permitting procedures, development caps, restrict development zones, farmland preservation, and exactions. Despite the drastic efforts to reduce growth pressure, however, the results are not so positive. Consequently, the central government began to place the current growth-management system under closer scrutiny. New legislative improvements include dismantling of nonexclusive agricultural districts, establishment of reservation districts, introduction of plan-guided development, merging of major development-related legislations, and changing greenbelt policy. In the meantime, the inefficiency view of growth management, the property-rights challenge and devolutionist prejudice make up the predominant obstacles to the growth-management regime. A reconciliation of the detrimental forces with pro-regulationist arguments is necessary to establish a robust growth-management system. Some plausible reform proposals keyed to assuring quality development in the right place at the right time can be recommended. They include adequate public-facilities requirement, growth-phasing programs, the acquisition of development rights techniques, pay-as-you-go financing, and a reinforced top–down planning framework. With these techniques instituted as key components, Korea's growth-management system could safeguard the general public interest, such as effective environmental protection, adequate provision of public facilities, co-ordinated patterns of land use and transportation, adequate revenues to finance development needs, and healthy provision of open space.