Regional and urban land use planning

The land use plan specifies the land uses, e.g. residential, commercial, green and road areas of the entire municipality for the next 10 to 15 years and thus forms the basis for spatial development. It presents, on an area-by-area basis, the various land uses for the entire municipality, projects areas for future uses, and protects others from overuse.

On the basis of the planning, both higher-level (state development plans and regional plans) and municipal, informal plans and specialized plans (INSEK, mission statements, community development concepts, school and daycare development concepts, tourism concepts, etc.) are evaluated.

The land use plan is binding for authorities, but has no direct legal effect on citizens.

The zoning plans are to be developed from the land use plan and represent in detail for a respective delimited area of the municipality the constructional as well as other possible uses of the areas concerned. The permissibility of land uses (such as residential areas, road areas, green areas, compensatory areas, community needs, etc.) and their design (such as buildable area, number of full storeys, planting of greenery, facilities for the external development of the land, etc.) can be specified.

A zoning plan is adopted by the municipality as a statute. Thereafter, it becomes legally binding for everyone through publication.

Our repertoire includes all forms of zoning plans:

• Qualified zoning plan
• Simple zoning plan
• Project-related zoning plan

The qualified zoning plan determines in a legally-binding manner which buildings and other facilities are permitted on a property. Among other things, stipulations are made regarding the following:

• The type of building use (such as residential, mixed-use and  commercial areas),
• The dimensions of building use (such as number of storeys and floor area, height, number of full storeys),
• The construction method (open or closed construction method),
• The area of the site that can be built over
• The local traffic areas

The simple zoning plan, which does not meet the requirements of a qualified zoning plan, contains only individual stipulations as binding regulations and is supplemented by the regulations of §§ 34 and 35 of the Building Code, which are to be applied in a supporting manner.

The project-related zoning plan (project and utility plan) is a special form of zoning plan. It is used when a project that has already been precisely outlined is to be executed by an investor. The project and utility plan is agreed between the investor and the municipality on the basis of the Building Code. The municipality regulates the utility measures to be provided with the investor by means of an implementation agreement. The project and utility plan serves to accelerate the implementation of construction projects and replaces the zoning plan procedure.

With the help of clarification statutes, also known as demarcation statutes, municipalities define the boundaries of their built-up districts and thus clearly demarcate the zoned area from the unzoned area.

Supplementary statutes, also known as "inclusion statutes" and "rounding off statutes", can be established by municipalities in order to achieve the permissibility of projects under planning law for undeveloped areas in the outer area. In this way, individual, as yet undeveloped plots of land or parts of plots of land in the immediate vicinity of the built-up district are assigned to the unplanned zoned area without having to carry out a complex zoning plan procedure.

The external area statute can be applied by the municipality to splinter settlements in the unzoned area and thus enables the implementation of building projects in the unzoned area to a limited extent.

An INSEK (integrated urban development concept) is an informal urban planning instrument that defines medium- to long-term goals for the city as a whole. With its integrated city-wide approach, it enables the essential spatial and functional development goals of the city to be presented. Individual spatial and thematic focal points are set, which lead to the concretization of measures. It contains guiding principles that define the direction of future policy and planning.

Urban district concepts, sometimes also referred to as framework plans, are predominantly drawn up in the context of subsidies. They include a detailed analysis of the district in question and, in coordination with higher-level planning, such as the INSEK and the land use plan, develop specific solutions for upgrading the district in question.

In rural areas, village development concepts can be used for individual solutions. They are the counterpart to the large, urban INSEKs.

The instrument of the overall concept combines the holistic view of an INSEK with the special subject-specific requirements such as flooding, mining, rising groundwater or climate change requirements. Specially adapted solutions are developed for the particular challenges.

Both shrinking and growing municipalities and regions have for some time recognized the added value of brownfield concepts, often in conjunction with an associated brownfield register. In shrinking regions, it provides an overview of districts that are particularly affected by population decline. They also form the basis for a possible marketing of the areas.
Growing communities appreciate the instrument as a basis for action in order to implement their own construction projects on suitable sites.