Changwon's Gaeum District 1 becomes first to apply for integrated review under new redevelopment system

Changwon has taken the first step in applying its new integrated review system, introduced to shorten the approval process for reconstruction and redevelopment projects.

The city announced Monday that the Gaeum District 1 Reconstruction Association in Seongsan-gu's Gaeum-dong had become the first to apply for an integrated review as part of the project implementation plan approval process. Under the new system, reviews covering architecture, landscape and education environment — previously handled by separate committees — will be consolidated into a single integrated review committee.

Each individual review had taken two to six months, dragging out the overall process. The integrated approach is expected to compress the total review period to three to six months, cutting the timeline by six months to up to a year compared with the previous system. The Gaeum District 1 reconstruction project calls for five apartment buildings of up to 26 above-ground floors and two below-ground floors on a 17,261-square-meter site, with a total of 396 units.

The scope of the integrated review varies depending on a project's scale and site area. Gaeum District 1 is subject to the mandatory three-category review — architecture, landscape and education environment — under current regulations. Larger projects with bigger sites or total floor areas will also have traffic, environmental and fire safety reviews folded into the integrated process.

With the application now submitted, the city said it will hold working-level consultations among relevant departments and conduct preliminary reviews by committee members before setting a formal hearing date and placing the matter on the agenda.

The city established its operational guidelines for the Changwon Redevelopment Project Integrated Review Committee in July and distributed them to all redevelopment sites in the city. The system covers not only standard redevelopment projects but also small-scale housing improvement projects such as street-block housing redevelopment.

While the city acknowledged that applicants face an upfront procedural burden in preparing documents for all review categories at once, it said the significant reduction in processing time after submission makes the system worthwhile. Changwon expects three to four projects in the city, including Gaeum District 1, to apply for integrated review before the end of the year.

"We will actively operate the integrated review system to ease the burden on associations and residents caused by administrative delays," Changwon Mayor Kang Ki-yun said. "We will continue to identify and address obstacles that impede project progress to accelerate urban redevelopment."