“Privately Owned Public Spaces Returned to the Public as Urban Resting Places” 

Ulsan Public Sinmungo Committee Conducts Survey on Privately Owned Public Spaces... 

Confirmation of 159 spaces in total

Ulsan Recommends the ‘Plan for Privately Owned Public Space Creation/Management Policy’ 

 To enhance the use of Privately Owned Public Spaces as urban resting places, the ‘Plan for Privately Owned Public Space Creation/Management Policy’ was proposed. 

The Ulsan Public Sinmungo Committee (Chaired by Cha Tae-hwan; hereinafter the Committee) conducted a ‘Privately Owned Public Space Survey’ for three months, starting in January of this year, and identified 159 Privately Owned Public Spaces; and presented the recommendation proposal to the city of Ulsan. 

There are a total of 159 Privately Owned Public Spaces (106,412 ㎡) that have been identified, with Nam-gu having the most spaces at 80 (32,737 ㎡). The rest of the Privately Owned Public Spaces are located in Jung-gu (36 spaces, 22,494 ㎡), Buk-gu (20 spaces, 30,423 ㎡), Ulju-gun (14 spaces, 12,890 ㎡), and Dong-gu (9 spaces, 7,868㎡). 

The proposal presents construction principles by type as well as installation standards so that the Committee may prepare a Privately Owned Public Space installation guideline (proposal) making sure that they are designed, in their planning stages, to ensure accessibility, safety, convenience, vitality, regional traits, and sustainability. 

Specifically, they proposed an additional type of Privately Owned Public Space for Ulsan that will be installed inside or on rooftops buildings so that the public can take shelter from fine dust, heat waves, cold waves, etc. 

Moreover, some Privately Owned Public Spaces in the area were found to be lacking signboards or their description, content, and designs were not uniform which gave the public difficulty in recognizing such spaces. To this end, the Committee also developed and presented a standardized signboard design (proposal) that portrayed great symbolism and visibility. 

Furthermore, the Committee also requested for thorough and regular follow-up management (e.g., drafting of management ledgers, regular maintenance, etc.), as well as additional workforce to be dedicated to these tasks. 

The Committee recommended that the city review the necessity for renovation projects aimed towards normalization, recovery of publicity, and vitalization of the privately owned public spaces that have lost their function due to owner negligence in investment as well as decay. Moreover, the Committee urged the city to establish budgets and regulations to support said maintenance and renovation projects. 

Meanwhile, Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) refer to the public spaces that are a part of privately owned buildings created with the purpose of rest or walks and opened to the public. 

POPS was first introduced with the establishment of Article 43 of the Building Act in 1991. 

According to the law, buildings in the general residential area, quasi-residential area, commercial area, and quasi-industrial area, that also serve as cultural and meeting facilities, religious facilities, commercial facilities, transportation facilities (only for passenger facilities), office facilities, and accommodation facilities, with a total floor area of more than 5,000㎡, must have 5-10% of their total floor area as POPS. 

When any POPS are installed in such a manner, the building gains partial incentive that alleviates certain limitations it may have from regulations (e.g., building-to-land ratio, floor area ratio, and building height limit). 

The survey revealed that the number of POPS in Ulsan grew rapidly since the late 2000s. Large open public spaces were created en masse specifically due to the movement of the public offices in Jung-gu and the creation of a logistics complex in Buk-gu, and they continue to grow in numbers. 

However, open public spaces are divided to the point that they cannot serve their functions and are often used as storage spaces for building residents or spaces for installation of outdoor units for air conditioners. 

Some cases even revealed that the open public spaces were intentionally divided and fenced to prevent the public from entering or using them as parking spaces. 

A personnel of the Public Sinmungo said that “with this public recommendation, we hope that the open public spaces are to be created and managed to serve their original purposes, offering them as spaces for walks, rests, culture, leisure, communication, and convenience to the public.”