The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to expand parking lots in various ways to alleviate the parking shortage in residential areas, one of the major inconveniences for citizens living in residential areas in Seoul.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 17th of last month that it will prepare measures to alleviate parking shortages in residential areas and implement them in earnest from this year to alleviate parking shortages, which hinder citizens' safe walking and cause various social problems such as disputes between neighbors.

In particular, the measures announced this time focus on intensively expanding and supplying parking spaces in vulnerable parking areas such as multi-family and multi-family housing areas. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has set five main goals, including ▲ supporting the creation of parking environment improvement districts ▲ reviewing the strengthening of parking standards for urban living houses ▲ supplying parking lots using public facilities ▲ actively discovering and utilizing idle spaces ▲ and cracking down on illegal repurposing of parking lots attached to apartment buildings, and plans to secure and provide about 17,191 additional parking spaces by 2014. 

Currently, the average parking supply rate for all residential areas in Seoul is 96.6% in nominal terms, but the parking supply rate for multi-family and multi-family housing areas, excluding apartments, is less than 60%, resulting in a relatively poor parking environment and a high rate of illegal parking.

Choi Jeong-soo, head of the Parking Planning Division at the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Urban Transportation Division, said, "Despite various policies to resolve parking difficulties, regional imbalances have not disappeared." "The number of households with two or more cars increased by 22.7 percent over the five-year period from 2005 to 2010, and the supply of urban living housing has surged from 615 units in 2009 to 22,256 units in 2011, while the supply of parking lots has not kept pace with the demand," he said.

The researchers also pointed out that the parking shortage has not been resolved due to changes in the standards for installing parking lots in accordance with housing policies and the existence of many spaces that do not function as parking lots. In fact, the standard for installing parking lots for apartments, multi-family houses, and multi-family houses, which was 0.7 spaces per household under 60㎡ from 2002 to 2009, was relaxed to the standard of facility area (1 space/60㎡) rather than per household in 2009 when the standard for installing parking lots for one-room urban living houses was established, which has not solved the parking problem. In addition, as of 2010, it is provisionally estimated that out of a total of 250,000 parking lots for apartment houses in Seoul, about 8,000 (3.2%) are being used illegally as warehouses or cafes, and about 20,000 (8.0%) are not functioning as parking lots.

 

As a result, the Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to work in partnership with the 25 autonomous districts to resolve the parking shortage in residential areas. Looking at the measures to alleviate the parking shortage in residential areas, the city will first designate 265 additional parking improvement districts with a low parking rate (less than 60%) and intensively expand them. Parking environment improvement districts are areas with poor parking environments (scale: about 300m radius) designated by the mayor of the relevant autonomous district office to expand parking spaces by establishing a special management plan, and currently, 187 of the 1,804 parking management districts in Seoul have parking spaces below 50% and 78 have parking spaces below 50.1-60%.

"With the city's strong will, we will intensively expand parking spaces by increasing the number of parking improvement districts, which currently stand at 39, to 265 by 2014," said Choi Jeong-soo, head of the Seoul Parking Planning Division. "If designated by the city, the city will provide many benefits, including priority support and incentives for current parking policies, such as building shared parking lots, tearing down fences, and green parking." The city plans to designate 61 additional sites this year in addition to the 39 designated last year, and 100 more in 2013 and 65 more in 2014, for a total of 265 sites.

The city also plans to strengthen parking standards for urban living houses with less than 30 units to a maximum of one parking space per 30 square meters. The MOLIT is considering tightening the parking standards for urban living houses with less than 30 units, which have been relaxed for reasons such as housing supply and revitalizing the housing economy, from one space per 60㎡ of dedicated area to up to one space per 30㎡.

On March 10, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced a partial revision of the Regulations on Housing Construction Standards, etc. to strengthen the parking standards for one-room urban living houses, and the city plans to prepare and reflect the 'Improvement of Parking Standards for Urban Living Houses' in the second half of this year in the ordinance based on the analysis of the results of residential parking inspections conducted in areas with a high concentration of urban living houses. For 15 days from March 26 to April 9, the city and districts jointly visited houses at night to survey the number of parking spaces, vehicle registrations, and actual parked vehicles, and analyzed a total of 11,580 households in 593 locations, with at least five sample sites per district.

Seoul also plans to continue to expand parking lots by utilizing public facilities such as roads, parks, and school basements, which it has been promoting since 1996, to provide a total of 28 new parking lots with 4,336 spaces by 2014. "We will initially supply two parking lots and 853 spaces this year, focusing on underground spaces around residential areas not served by underpasses or subways," said Choi, head of the Parking Planning Division. Garo Park-gil, Yangcheon-gu (376 spaces), which is currently in the final stages of completion, will be available this month, and in September, Garo Park-gil, Gangseo-gu (477 spaces) will also have an underground parking lot. In addition, a large-scale parking lot of about 500 spaces is under consideration to be built under Eunpyeong-ro and Seorung-ro in Nokbun-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, and if qualified, the parking lot will be completed in 2017. In addition to underground spaces under roads, underground spaces such as schools and parks will also be developed as parking lots, supplying a total of 1,287 parking spaces in nine locations by 2014.

 

In addition, the city plans to support 100% of the construction costs of eight residential parking lots (870 spaces) by 2014 to alleviate the imbalance between areas that have been relatively poorly supplied with parking lots due to poor financial conditions. The city will start by securing 270 parking spaces in two areas, Yangcheon-gu and Geumcheon-gu, this year, and will support a total of eight parking lots, three each in 2013 and 2014. The city will also continue to promote the fence removal project to secure a total of 8,000 additional sites by 2014.

It will also excavate idle land in residential areas and open parking lots of existing public facilities at night. This year, we will invest a total of KRW 300 million to first secure 21 sites (150 spaces), including 30 spaces in Gwangjin-gu, 35 spaces in Mapo-gu, and 52 spaces in Yongsan-gu, and 81 sites (550 spaces) by 2014. The company plans to encourage landowners to participate by giving them tax breaks. In addition to idle spaces, the city also plans to increase the utility of existing parking lots by opening parking lots of neighborhood facilities and public facilities such as schools at night. This year, 1,805 parking spaces will be secured, including 570 in Gangbuk-gu, 400 in Mapo-gu, and 210 in Seongdong-gu, and a total of 4,305 spaces will be provided by 2014.

Finally, to crack down on the change of use of parking lots attached to apartment buildings and prevent illegal change of use of parking lots created by tearing down fences, parking facilities will be registered and managed in the building management register. Choi, head of the Parking Planning Division, said, "If caught repurposing an attached parking lot, prosecution and restitution measures can be taken, and a fine of up to three years in prison or up to 50 million won can be imposed for non-fulfillment." "We will list parking facilities such as the number of parking spaces and maintenance period in the building management register, and refund the full amount of construction costs if the parking lot is converted to another use within five years."

Seoul is also considering introducing a garage certificate system and car-sharing to solve the underlying parking shortage in residential areas. The garage certificate system was introduced in Japan 50 years ago and is currently operating stably, and in Korea, the Jeju Island region introduced it in 2007. The Seoul Metropolitan Government proposed a revision to the Parking Lot Act to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport on the 10th of last month, and plans to finalize the introduction plan through public hearings once the legal basis is established after reviewing the introduction plan, including a survey of residential parking conditions, case analysis of the garage certificate system, and policy research.

In addition, the introduction of car sharing, which contributes to the settlement of a culture of shared car use, will be reviewed and piloted in parking improvement districts. In areas where car sharing is introduced, parking spaces dedicated to car sharing will be set aside in public parking lots, and benefits such as priority use of parking spaces for residents will be provided when promoting their own projects at the village level.

Yoon Jun-byung, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Urban Transportation Division, said, "Until now, securing parking lots has been promoted jointly by the autonomous districts and the city, but given that it is difficult for autonomous districts with poor financial conditions to secure their own, the city has taken an active role." "We will focus on resolving the imbalance of parking spaces by region and autonomous district and create a convenient environment for parking anywhere in Seoul's residential areas."