The Damaged Area Restoration Project for greenbelts was introduced by applying the replotting method in the Urban Development Act, and the unit area of a natural green area (over 10,000 m2), one of the designated conditions for urban development zones, was set as the minimum size of the project. Some residents and local governments, however, have called for the relaxation of the criteria since it is difficult to form a target site that meets the minimum size while obtaining 100% consent of land owners.
The Damaged Area Restoration Project was designed to systematically reduce unplanned, damaged facilities within greenbelts, to secure urban parks and green spaces for restoring the function of green spaces, and thus to improve urban environments. It seems to be reasonable to maintain the minimum area of a project site (over 10,000 m
2) in order to systematically improve damaged areas by applying the procedures for urban development projects in the Urban Development Act, and reflecting them in planning the management of greenbelts. If the minimum area is lowered to smaller than 10,000 m
2, it is necessary to add a new clause for exception to the rule for designating urban development zones, which requires the amendment of the Urban Development Act and more grounds for installing parks and green spaces (land donation) in the Act on Urban Parks, Green Areas, etc. (
Korea Ministry of Government Legislation, 2019). In addition, the effect of improving damaged areas on a small scale is not significant, and it is also difficult to systematically improve damaged areas. Nevertheless, it can be considered to allow to combine small- and medium-scale sites for the restoration project while maintaining the minimum area for promoting the Damaged Area Restoration Project. Currently, the Damaged Area Restoration Project allows to combine ‘close damaged areas’ and ‘scattered damaged areas,’ for instance, when the area of close damaged areas accounts for over 70% of the total project area, they are allowed to be combined with scattered damaged areas (
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 2016). The number of lots that can be grouped to meet the minimum area (over 10,000 m
2) in Namyangju when small-scale areas are combined is as shown in
Table 3. A total of 2,841 lots of damaged areas were analyzed, and 70% was applied to the area of damaged areas that can be grouped for the project. For instance, when designating the land of 3,000 m
2 as a project target, the land can be composed of 2,100 m
2 (70%) damaged areas and 900 m
2 (30%) non-damaged areas, and the number of groups utilized in the restoration project was found to be 460, and the number of lots, 1,101. When the current minimum area, 10,000 m
2, is applied, the number of lots that can be designated as a target site is 124, accounting for only 4.4% of the total number of lots. However, when the minimum area is 5,000 m
2, the percentage increases to 18.8%. When combining small-scale areas sized over 3,000 m
2 to meet the minimum area (over 10,000 m
2), 38.8% of the total damaged areas in terms of the number of lots can be designated as a target site. When the minimum area is 2,000 m
2, the percentage of lots that can be grouped increases to 56%. These results indicate that it is possible to promote the project by grouping small- and medium-scale areas while maintaining the total area of the project. Still, when the minimum area of damaged areas is lowered excessively, the effect of the restoration project can be reduced, resulting in the increasing number of unplanned development areas. Therefore, to satisfy the original purpose of the project, it is necessary to promote the Damaged Area Restoration Project, and at the same time to identify and apply the optimal scale for the project.