District unit planning is a kind of urban management planning, a means of planning urban management at a unit of 10 years. The district unit planning system was introduced in Korea as an urban design system under the Building Act, and the micro planni...
District unit planning is a kind of urban management planning, a means of planning urban management at a unit of 10 years. The district unit planning system was introduced in Korea as an urban design system under the Building Act, and the micro planning system was introduced in 1990 by the Urban Planning Act and integrated into the district unit planning system by the revision of the Urban Planning Act in 2000. District unit planning is an active tool replacing the passive ‘use‐based zoning system,’ and a district urban planning system established by integrating previous ‘urban design’ and ‘micro planning.’ In order to apply district unit planning, more comprehensive and general environment is being promoted for districts using various means but still there are several points to be improved in the operation of the system.
Thus, the present study purposed to understand the nature of district unit planning based on previous researches, to identify problems in district unit planning, to analyze an actual case of district unit planning for “the district around 101 Seoksu‐dong, Manan‐gu, Anyang‐si, Gyeonggi‐do,” and to make suggestions for improving district unit planning.
In this paper, first, the definition and institutional status and nature of district unit planning and the relations between district unit planning and other types of planning were described, type 1 district unit planning and type 2 district unit planning were distinguished and compared, and district unit planning guidelines for building apartments were presented.
Second, through the field case of resident‐proposal‐type district unit planning for Seoksu 2 District, items to be included in district unit planning were closely analyzed and explained.
Third, general problems in the process of finalizing and announcing resident‐participation‐type district unit plans for Seoksu 2 District and problems specific to resident‐proposal‐type district unit planning for Seoksu 2 District were identified, and solutions were proposed.
The resident‐proposal‐type district unit planning system started with the object of inducing the residents’ direct participation, but caused many unexpected problems. It was because, in the early immature stage of the system, district unit planning was operated inadequately without understanding the meaning of district unit planning. Thus, it is necessary to adopt a more active operation procedure by holding open discussions in the Urban Planning Committee rather than delimiting residents’ participation to the passive procedure of public hearings. Furthermore, we need to suggest guidelines for residents’ active participation in the processes of district unit planning and to provide specialists in district unit planning.
Because, in most cases, urban management planning is preceded by district unit planning, there will be increasing demand for district unit planning. To meet the demand, we need to enhance people’s interest in district plans and their understanding of the corresponding area and minimize confusion in the planning procedure by establishing organic conversational channels between the residents who have proposed district unit planning and the interested parties of the project, civil servants and planning committee members, and to reduce time for deciding the range of district unit planning by improving relevant systems.
In addition, for the efficient operation of district unit planning, we need to make approaches for the growth and activation of localities, inducing development in adequate size, operating efficient incentives, reinforcing project execution tools, etc., and to develop guidelines and manuals fit for the characteristics of each locality for the effective operation of district unit planning.