Citizen participation in urban land-use planning
(The provisions for landscape planning are comparable)
What is the purpose of citizen participation?
- Informing citizens about intended developments
- Identification and appropriate assessment of affected interests
- Contributing suggestions and information at an early stage
- Democratic participation in planning decision-making processes
- There is no obligation on the part of citizens to participate; however, their own interests may then not be taken into account.
How can citizens actively participate in planning?
§Section 3 BauGB ensures the participation of citizens in the planning process in two stages as a rule:
Preliminary draft (§3 (1) BauGB)
- Informing citizens at an early stage about the intention and impact of the measure by displaying the planning (including any existing variants)
- Public hearing, explanation of the planning
- submit oral or written statements, comments online (accessible via the information page of the respective planning procedure)
- Minutes of the event
- early participation can be waived for certain procedures
Draft (§3 (2) BauGB)
- Public meeting of the planning committee and the district councils on the "open decision"
- Public display for one month (including significant, already existing environmental comments)
- submit oral or written statements, comments online (accessible via the information page of the respective planning procedure)
If necessary, renewed public presentation of the amended draft
- If there are any fundamental changes to the draft, these are presented again for political consultation. This is followed by another public consultation on the draft.
Similar framework conditions apply to landscape planning, which are set out in Sections 27b and c of the NRW Landscape Act.
What happens to citizen input?
- The administration evaluates the written and verbal suggestions made on both the preliminary draft and the draft (weighing proposal): Weighing up the public and private interests with each other and against each other
- Public consultation in the district council and in the planning committee. The proposal for this consultation can be viewed via the council information system (ratsinfo.aachen.de/bis).
- The Council makes the final decision on whether to consider or reject the suggestions. The documents can also be viewed via the Council information system.
- Notification of the result of the consideration to the author of the submission (§3 (2) sentence 4 BauGB)
How are citizens informed?
You can find out more about:
- Public meetings of the district councils, committees and the Council
- Press reports and public announcements
- Direct right to information and inspection by the administration
- online: www.aachen.de/bauleitplanung and the consultation documents at ratsinfo.aachen.de/bi
In addition to the legal provisions of the Building Code, the Aachen City Council has adopted guidelines on the participation of citizens in urban land-use planning in accordance with Section 3 of the Building Code.
What legal effect do the urban land-use plans have for citizens?
see individual planning instruments