To pursue national development and to ensure a better future, it needs to be constantly studied and examined how to systematically manage finite land resource and increase efficiency of its use. Land issue has been presented regardless of time and spa...
To pursue national development and to ensure a better future, it needs to be constantly studied and examined how to systematically manage finite land resource and increase efficiency of its use. Land issue has been presented regardless of time and space, and its boundary is vast and diverse. In a broad sense, the issues are often classified into physical, economic, and institutional areas. Physical issues arise from the tangible characteristics of the land, while economic and institutional issues are found in the intangible aspect of the land. Among various issues regarding land the institutional issues have been recently given heightened attention. These issues mostly involve lack of necessary systems, fallacious legislation, and unreasonable application of the law. The demand is higher than ever for rational maintenance and operation of the law that regulates development activities. Regulating development generally leads to two types of problems. First is the adequacy of regulation method adopted by the government power. Even the exertion of the government power for the sake of efficient use and management of the national land should be premised on the assurance of private property right. Second is a friction with private property right. The exertion of government power inevitably incurs regulation and restriction on the private property right of individuals. This is likely to provoke resistance from the property owners.
During the years of industrialization of Korea, excessive emphasis was put on the binding power of the society over private property right that was ensured by the constitution. Especially, in regard to the land, as numerous legislations were enacted to restrict development activities along with rapid industrialization and urbanization, land use was put under severe constraint. Thus, regulation on the development often causes tension between assurance of private property and public prosperity, as the private and public interest clash. This issue is given even more attention as the participatory government recently pursues a large-scale urban planning policy, focusing on the projected construction sites, claiming to achieve balanced national development and revitalization of regional economy, with a goal to elevate status of the country by making best use of the growth potential.
This research clarifies the concept of the development as well as examines problems of the existing systems and suggests alternatives, acknowledging that desirable development is enabled by improving and appropriately managing the basic system of development planning and tools for systematic development. Furthermore, the research illustrates legal, systematic problems, and provides main tasks for the legislation by analyzing regulations on the development activities.
Firstly, a development activity is defined as the division of land, change of land use in primary pursuit of constructing architecture or a workpiece. The new interpretation focuses on establishing consistent standard and rules in applying and interpreting the law, and in managing administration.
Secondly, the names of individual areas provided in specific laws are similar to the land zoning types provided in the national land planning, often leading to confusion with conventional land use regulation. As the purpose and content of the regional policy are not conveyed clearly, people are led to think that the restriction on the private land use is excessive. To resolve this issue, a uniform application of specific laws to reorganize individual land use throughout the country should be avoided; more flexible application is required upon that takes regional conditions and characteristics into account.
Thirdly, in a short term, to settle the new system, a legislation is required to enact, revise, and complement existing enforcement decrees of the national land planning, directives on development permit operation, and ordinances on the municipal and district level. Also, other tasks include providing realistic regulations on permit exemption, and specifying related directives and rules.
Fourthly, in a long term, the permitted area needs to be limited to ensure stable management and development of the new system. It is desirable to confine the permit based on the land use and district, by considering regional characteristics, expected demand, goals and scales of the development scheme. More importantly, follow up mechanism should be set up so that the land would not be used for purposes other than as permitted.
Lastly, to pursue balanced national growth, and to minimize violation of a private property right, local governments need to enact specific ordinances regarding a development permit that reflects regional characteristics, and establish computerized database for permit works so that transparent information could be provided regarding permits by cases, subjects, and regions.