Korea rules school-building permit does not extend to work in greenbelt

South Korea's government legislation ministry said Monday that a permit deemed granted for a school building inside a development-restricted zone does not cover the incidental work that goes with it, rejecting a request from the South Gyeongsang Provincial Office of Education for a wider interpretation.

The dispute turns on a provision of the School Facility Projects Promotion Act. When a school project site where construction has already been completed is used for a new school building, notification to the local mayor or county chief is treated as the building permit required under the greenbelt law. The education office asked whether that deemed permit also extends to accompanying work such as installing structures, changing the form of land or felling trees.

The ministry said it does not. In its reply, it said the scope of a permit treated as granted must be judged from the wording and structure of the statute, and cannot be stretched to cover permits the text does not name.

The greenbelt law bans construction and other listed activities in such areas in principle and allows them only with permission, with each type of activity handled separately. A building permit therefore does not naturally carry permission for the works incidental to it.

The question arose under the act's Article 5-2, paragraph 5, which deems the greenbelt building permit to have been granted once the notification is made.