Gimhae City will rectify the land designations of agricultural housing sites that are still classified as farmland in official records, despite being developed for residential use.
This initiative aims to alleviate the burdens faced by landowners who have experienced discrepancies between actual land use and public records for over 40 years, impacting their property rights.
On November 10, Gimhae City announced that it will implement the "Agricultural Housing Site Designation Correction Project" for lands established as agricultural housing sites before December 28, 1984, which are still classified as farmland. The project is set to be completed by the end of 2027.
The targeted sites are those where agricultural housing or ancillary facilities were built before the enforcement of regulations requiring permits for land use changes. Although these sites were not subject to permit requirements at the time, the lack of subsequent designation changes has resulted in a mismatch between actual land use and official records.
As time has passed, it has become increasingly difficult for landowners to provide documentation proving the timing of construction. This burden has hindered the process of changing land designations.
Consequently, landowners have faced ongoing inconveniences, such as needing to navigate agricultural administrative procedures like obtaining certificates for farmland acquisition and undergoing farmland usage surveys, despite using the land for housing purposes.
To reduce the burden on landowners to gather historical documentation, Gimhae City will proactively investigate the targeted lands.
The city will compare tax records, building registries, and historical aerial photos held by the National Geographic Information Institute to verify the timing of construction and land use history. Following this, on-site inspections will determine whether housing structures still exist and assess compliance with relevant laws and the need for subdivision surveys to finalize the designation changes.
The city plans to send designation change application forms and informational notices to the owners of verified lands later this month.
Landowners who do not receive a notice can request an investigation from the city. In such cases, they will receive assistance in interpreting historical aerial photos and verifying tax records, and eligibility for designation changes will be determined based on the relevant documentation and on-site inspection results.
This project is a follow-up to Gimhae City's "Land Designation Realignment Project for Lands Altered Before the Enforcement of the Farmland Act," which began last year. The goal is to identify additional agricultural housing sites that were previously excluded from the original scope of the project and resolve discrepancies between actual land use and official records.
However, the briefing materials did not specify the number of parcels or the estimated number of beneficiaries involved in the overall correction effort. The actual scale of the project is expected to be clarified following the identification of targeted lands and on-site verifications.
Park Hee-yeol, head of the Land Information Division at Gimhae City, stated, "We will carry out this project without delay to ensure that citizens who have faced inconveniences due to discrepancies between actual land use and official records for over 40 years can fully enjoy their rightful property rights."
The city will proceed with administrative procedures related to the designation change applications, including record updates and registration requests, and will inform landowners and relevant departments of the outcomes.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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