AACHEN*2030 land use plan

The land use plan is a binding plan for the authorities which, as a preparatory urban land use plan, is bound by the legal requirements of the German Building Code. Its tasks:

• Presentation of the intended urban development for the entire urban area,
• Presentation of the resulting type of land use,
• Integrated overall view of municipal and official specialist planning in the urban area.

The type of use is outlined in an FNP. It is not plot-specific. No direct building rights can be derived from this. This is done later in the legally binding development plans (the so-called binding urban land-use planning). The development plans must be developed from the land use plan. It is only in a development plan that it is later determined exactly how the land may be used. This includes, for example, the density at which buildings may be built, how high the buildings may be, how the buildings are positioned and how wide the roads will be. Because it is only then that it is clear exactly what is to be built, it is only at this point that the traffic impact can be examined and it can be determined what compensation is required for the impact on nature and soil or how climatic requirements are to be precisely assessed.

The FNP is an instrument of preparatory urban land-use planning, whereby the "preparatory" also makes it clear that it is not a rigid but a dynamic plan. The new FNP provides a guideline for urban development and at the same time lays down the guidelines for creative thinking and further development of the city in the coming decades.

Aachen's urban development is facing new challenges today. In contrast to the development of the FNP in 1980 more than 40 years ago, the now completed process took into account environmental objectives such as open space, climate and soil protection as well as demographic change to a completely different extent. The future population development and the requirements for residential and commercial development areas were recalculated for this purpose, and changes in legislation and a large number of requirements had to be taken into account. Finally, the redrafting of the land use plan was of course also carried out in digital form in order to take into account the technically changed requirements for easier updating of the plan.

The land use plan is prescribed by law and forms the legal basis for all further steps in municipal urban land use planning. Its contents are therefore regulated accordingly. Many of the content-related and strategic statements that are essential for medium and long-term urban development are difficult to capture in it. For this reason, so-called "informal" plans are drawn up everywhere in urban planning practice. There are many names for development concepts of this kind. In Aachen, the term "master plan" is used. It is used to describe:

• The project has also worked out the framework conditions for urban development and created the conditions for Aachen to prepare for future population development, climate change and new mobility concepts, for example,
• previous and current plans and projects are set in relation to each other,
• The central fields of action for future urban development were identified and considered in terms of their spatial requirements and consequences,
• scenarios and alternative development paths,
• Perspectives and guidelines for spatial development were formulated and strategically important projects and impulse projects were developed for urban development.

Of course, this concept does not cover Aachen's entire urban development policy in detail. The aim is rather to work out the urban development guidelines. In many cases, however, these also result from the plans and programs of the specialist planning departments - be it tourism, culture, education, economy, environment or similar. Before the consequences for spatial development can be drawn, a development concept that concentrates on spatial aspects must first provide an overview of the general framework conditions and the fields of action for urban development. Existing plans and concepts on specific topics or spatial sub-areas are not replaced by the master plan, but rather brought together. Existing plan statements were updated where necessary and outdated planning documents were updated.

The master plan was primarily used to develop perspectives and guidelines for the spatial development of the city. It is an "informal" plan (a guideline) that is not legally binding, but provides important orientation for further planning.

In contrast, the land use plan is binding. It is prescribed by law and forms the legal basis for all further steps in municipal urban land use planning.

The 1980 land use plan of the city of Aachen was still based on forecasts from the 1970s and has already had to be adapted more than 70 times to reflect changing circumstances. It was therefore time to update and redraw this plan for Aachen's future spatial development.

The close connection between the content of the master plan and the land use plan suggested that both plans should be developed in a coherent process. Work on this dual plan entitled AACHEN*2030 began in early April 2010, with the first step being the master plan, which was adopted by Aachen City Council in December 2012.

In summer 2014, the preliminary draft of the Aachen*2030 land use plan was presented to the public and the early participation of the public and authorities was carried out.

In the subsequent adaptation and revision phase, all suggestions, objections and concerns raised about individual areas were evaluated and weighed up, and suggestions were made for new areas to be examined, and data and studies were updated and processed. New review requests also arose that made further investigations and expert opinions necessary.

The revision phase described above resulted in the draft land use plan, the publication of which was politically approved in spring 2019. The public presentation took place in summer 2019.

For reasons of legal certainty, the public display was repeated with unchanged draft content at the beginning of 2020. Following the public display including public participation and the preparation of the proposals for weighing up all comments received by the specialist administration, the Aachen City Council passed the final resolution on the FNP Aachen*2030 on 26.08.2020 with the so-called adoption resolution. The FNP AACHEN*2030 was then submitted to the Cologne district government for approval. Approval was granted in February 2021 with some exceptions and conditions. The implementation of the exceptions and conditions has no influence on the result of the Council's decision of 26.08.2020.

The AACHEN*2030 land use plan was published on 27.01.2022. This announcement means that the AACHEN*2030 land use plan is now legally effective and replaces the land use plan from 1980.

During the entire work process, interested parties were able to see at all times how the work was progressing and how they could share their opinions and comments.

As part of the master plan process, specialist forums and district workshops were held in which individual topics and the specific situations in Aachen's districts were discussed in detail.

In addition, key persons were interviewed at the beginning of the process in order to obtain opinions on Aachen's urban development from as many different perspectives as possible.

From the outset, politicians and top management formed a steering group to provide strategic guidance. An administrative workshop was also set up right from the start, in which all departments that influence the spatial development of the city were represented.

After completion of the master plan at the end of 2012, the redrafting of the land use plan was also accompanied by various participation offerings.

Initially, a preliminary version of the land use plan was discussed within the administration and coordinated in initial talks with the district government and with representatives of the districts as part of district forums.

All interested citizens were informed about the status of the planning at public information events both at the beginning of the early public participation in 2014 (preliminary draft) and at the 2019 public consultation (draft). In each case, citizens' consultation hours were offered in all districts afterwards. Representatives from BKR and the administration were available to explain the content of the land use plan and answer individual questions.