Categorization of Parcels Without Road Frontage in Seoul and Development Possibilities for Sustainable Urban Transformation

Parcels without road frontage are produced by subdividing larger parcels of land before the land planning and Building Act was established. Parcels without road frontage are neglected in real estate investment and urban development causing their deterioration and isolation in the city. Parcels without road frontage can be discovered in dense residential districts which were informally developed. Sometimes, an easement agreement is established for a new construction. However, validity of the easement could be changed pending upon the land ownership. Therefore it makes the development of parcels without road frontage unstable and unsustainable. In this paper, through case study of parcels without road frontage of Changsin Sungin District in Seoul, parcels without road frontage are categorized to examine their conditions and problems. This analysis allows evaluation of development possibilities of parcels without road frontage based on information of land owners, adjacent lot conditions, and physical situations of existing buildings to lead the development of parcels without road frontage. By considering such an information, if we induce adequate development of parcels without road frontage in Seoul, it would contribute to regeneration of the parcel, the block and the neighborhood, enhancing the value of parcel and driving the sustainable urban transformation. Proceedings of the 8th Conf. Int. Forum Urban. D019


Introduction
Background Road frontage is considered as the ultimate requirement for permitting a building on the lot in the architectural practice and the urban planning. Parcels without road frontage are weak points in the city in need of public awareness and strategic interest for urban development. Recently established special planning districts for revitalization in Seoul made some parcels without road frontage have opportunities to be regenerated and upgraded as demanded by the land/building owners and by the public for the healthy and safe neighborhood development.

Goals
To categorize parcels without road frontage. by extracting multiple factors of the situation by demonstrating which method of revitalization can be applied to specific parcels based upon their situations.

Strategies
1. Examining distribution of parcels without road frontage in Seoul and urban planning policies allowing their development 2. Analyzing specific distribution of parcels without road frontage and their conditions in case study and assessing revitalization possibilities of those parcels. 3. Suggesting the appropriate regenerating methods of parcels without road frontage.

Issues in Developing Parcels without Road Frontage
it is important to have similar conditions between the parcel without road frontage and adjacent parcels. the owner of adjacent parcels in contact with roads should achieve the substantial benefits from the project.
enough information including benefits and obstacles detailed information about building agreement process benefits of the policy to improve the living environment obstacles against the building agreement.
→ We will discuss the more thorough analysis on the possibilities of the development in the following section with a case study.

Method
(1) click 'Select by Location' in the 'Selection' tab of the pull down menu (2) Select the lands layer at 'Target layer(s)' section (3) Select the roads layer at 'Source layer' section (4) Select 'Target layer features are within a distance of the Source layer feature' at 'Spatial selection method' (5) Check 'Apply a search distance' and set the value at 10 millimeters To search the suitable targets of parcels without road frontage, we utilized the GIS software. First, we prepared GIS data about roads and lands around the target area.
Then, we excluded some kinds of parcels shown in the next page.

Description (a)
A parcel with no building (b) A parcel with a building beyond the adjacent parcel (c) A parcel that are micro-size (d) A parcel with a very thin parcel to access road Examples of excluded parcels

Method
Finalized Locations of parcels without road frontage in Changsin Sungin District, indicating exclusion and final selections process

Analysis of Types
130-33 Changsin 1 dong, the parcel without road frontage is located on the upper slope at the foot of a cliff above (Fig.4 (b)). The parcel has a small and old building, which has a main entrance looking out onto the narrow alley beside the 130-29 (Fig.4  (c), (d)). The parcel has a small and old building, which has a main entrance looking out onto the narrow alley beside the 130-29 (Fig.4 (c), (d)). Although the building has another entrance in the direction of the parcel, 130-32, it doesn't seem to be used. The parcel, 130-33 seems to be very hard to be developed together with 130-32 or 130-29 because the surrounding condition of site is inferior and complicated. The inferior condition means that it's very hard to access and the area of the parcel is very small at 23.1㎡. Even if three parcels of130-29, 130-32 and 130-33 are bound and developed together, they would not have enough space for adequate sunlight and ventilation (Fig.4 (c)). The complicate condition means that 130-33 and the surrounding parcels are owned by different persons. In addition, 130-33 and 130-32 don't have building registers.
The parcels without road frontage are owned by different persons. In front of the parcel, 17-24, there is a small courtyard shared by four worn-out buildings ( Fig.10 (a), (c)). Although buildings are on lease, they have no building register.
The parcel 181-142 Sungin 1 dong touches the parcel 58-555, owned by the borough Jongno-gu and used as a road currently, with its long and narrow part ( Fig.13 (a)). Because the part isn't wide enough for even a person to pass through, 181-142 is considered as a parcel without road frontage in this study.
Considering the adjacent parcels 181-143 and 181-144, it's hard to expect building agreement between 181-142 and adjacent parcels because their conditions, especially such as the built year, are different: adjacent buildings on 181-143 and 181-144 are built in 1995 and 1997 respectively; the building on 181-142 seems to be much more deteriorated than the adjacent buildings (Fig.13 (c)) -it has no choice but to be judged from its appearance because it has no building register.
With another adjacent parcel 181-168, it's also hard to expect building agreement between 181-142 and 181-168 because the condition of building on 181-168 is so complicated as follows. First, although its building register was terminated several years ago, there still is a 4-story building on the ground and there are people living inside. Second, it is owned by eight people. Finally, the building is over the boundary with 58-555 owned by the borough as mentioned above. Therefore if a building is legally built again, it would have less floor area than the current building has.

Conclusions
We propose an approach by responding to individual demands at parcel-level in the urban development policies to revitalize and improve parcels without road frontage.
The approach of this case-study, categorization and explanatory analysis can play a leading role to verify effectiveness of revitalization policies and to propose alternatives.
To adopt adequate and realistic revitalization policies, it is important for the government not to intend to grasp every situation and condition of parcels without road frontage but to open to various guidance policies for urban regeneration and redevelopment which the land owners can voluntarily plan the improvement and maintenance of their parcels.

Expectation
By doing this, if we induce adequate investment on the development of parcels without road frontage in Seoul, it would contribute to revitalization of the parcel, the block and the neighborhood enhancing the value of a parcel and driving the sustainable urban transformation while preserving a healthy neighborhood.