Mayor Oh wants Seoul's universities to be taller

Social Affairs

Published: 12 Dec. 2022, 16:39 Updated: 13 Dec. 2022, 13:45

Mayor Oh wants Seoul's universities to be taller

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center, poses with Korea University President Chung Jin-taek, left, and Konkuk University President Jeon Young-jae on Monday at City Hall ahead of announcing a set of policies to ease building restrictions on universities in Seoul. [NEWS1]

The city of Seoul will ease regulations on universities building up their campuses.

Floor area ratios, which dictate how much building can be done on a plot of land, and height restrictions on 54 universities will be liberalized with the aim of implementing the policies in the second half of 2023, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Monday.

The key to the plan is to ease the current floor area ratio regulations in universities.

Among Seoul's 54 universities, 16 including Seoul National University are already at 75 percent of the building they are currently allowed. Nine universities, including Hanyang University and Hongik University, are at 90 percent or more, with no room for expansion. The city plans to revise the ordinance on urban planning to increase the universities’ floor area ratio by 20 percent.

“Before being re-elected as mayor, I gave lectures at a graduate school and was in a position where I could directly hear from people in the field,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said during a press briefing on Monday at the City Hall.

“Now Korea should act as a first mover, not a fast follower.

“Even if newest cutting-edge university departments try to increase the number of students, there is not enough space for classes,” he continued. “In order to create technologies and paradigms that do not exist in the world, science and engineering departments should particularly cooperate with start-ups and continue challenging themselves in order for Korea to rank among the world’s top 10 biggest economies.”

The city is also introducing a new concept dubbed Innovative Growth Zones, lifting the floor area ratio completely for a specific site.

Innovative Growth Zones will be focused on students who want to start start-ups.

The city also decided to remove height restrictions on campuses if the impact on the surrounding landscape is small. Currently, 20 universities, or about 40 percent of the universities in Seoul, are located in zones where development is restricted to protect natural scenery. Buildings are limited to seven floors, or 28 meters.

In addition, the city plans to simplify the urban planning process universities have to go through when expanding.

Seoul estimates that universities that used 70 percent or more of their floor area ratio could procure an additional total area of up to 530,000 square meters per university. The liberalization is also expected to lead to 1.18 trillion won in investments and create 23,800 new jobs.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]