Redrafting of landscape plan

The public information event on the draft landscape plan took place on 14.05.2024 at the Talstraße depot. The district consultation hours for all citizens took place from 15.05. - 12.06. The information event for the group of tenants and owners with agricultural operations took place on 18.06.2024.

• Minutes of the three events
• Presentation for the public information event
  

All comments and suggestions received on time from the public participation as well as from the parallel participation of the authorities and public agencies will be examined by the administration in the further process. The administration will again draw up a proposal for weighing up the planning status and check whether a new public display is required.

If this is not the case, the final version of the statutes will be prepared with the involvement of the relevant political bodies.

At the end of the process, the final decision on the issues to be weighed up is made by the Aachen City Council, which must ultimately adopt the landscape plan as a statute.

All citizens who have made a submission as part of the public consultation will be informed of the time of the committee meetings by letter. All information on the consultation meetings will also be published on the City of Aachen's website.

The "Redrafting the landscape plan" project began with an informal participation process between 2015 and 2018. The result of this participation is the "Preliminary study for the landscape plan" document, which formed the basis for the preliminary draft.

In various participation formats (including working groups, information events), the public as well as important local players and various stakeholders were given the opportunity to contribute their knowledge and ideas to the planning process.

The stakeholder groups primarily comprised representatives from forestry and agriculture, the specialist authorities, environmental and nature conservation associations and various other specialist associations. The political representatives were involved through the environmental and planning policy spokespersons of the council parliamentary groups via the "Steering Group" format and the district councils via the "District Expert Discussions" format.

As part of the "Talks among neighbors", a constructive exchange took place with the representatives of the neighboring regions/municipalities from Belgium and the Netherlands as well as the neighboring municipalities of the Aachen city region.

The participation of the general public took place in March 2016 as part of the "Landscape Plan Forum."

The decision to draw up a new landscape plan for the city of Aachen to safeguard the objectives of nature conservation and landscape management as well as to promote biodiversity was made at the planning committee meeting on July 11, 2018. The announcement was made on August 30, 2018, thus formally initiating the landscape plan procedure.

The formal two-stage participation procedure is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the North Rhine-Westphalia Nature Conservation Act (LNatSchG NRW).

The early participation in the preliminary draft of the landscape plan is the first stage of the legally prescribed procedure for the preparation of new landscape plans in accordance with the State Nature Conservation Act.

At its meeting on July 11, 2018, the planning committee decided on the early participation of the authorities and the public in accordance with the NRW State Nature Conservation Act (Sections 15 and 16 LNatSchG NRW in conjunction with the guidelines of the Aachen City Council) as well as the participation in the strategic environmental assessment (Section 9 LNatSchG) for the landscape plan at the same time as the decision to draw up the plan.

The early participation took place from November 5 to December 14, 2018. Local stakeholders, interest groups and the interested public as well as the authorities and public agencies were invited to participate in the planning process with the announcement of October 25, 2018.

Throughout the entire participation phase, all documents relevant to the preliminary draft of the landscape plan were available for inspection in all municipal district offices, at the Department of Urban Development and Transport Facilities and on the City of Aachen's website. An information and participation event was held in the ballroom of the Altes Kurhaus on November 6, 2018. This was accompanied by consultation hours on the preliminary draft of the landscape plan in all district offices. In addition, the city presented the "Aachen Landscape Spaces" exhibition in the St. Nikolaus City Church with a view to the new landscape plan from November 22 to December 19, 2018. "Aachen Landscape Spaces" exhibition.

During this participation stage, comments, objections, concerns or suggestions regarding the plan were formulated and submitted to the administration. A total of 170 submissions from the public were registered.

All comments, suggestions and objections received were examined by the administration during the further process and resulted in a proposal for consideration. This proposal, together with the revised draft documents (volumes 1 and 2 and the maps), has now been discussed by politicians and will be put on public display as part of the public consultation on the draft landscape plan.

The second statutory procedural step is participation in the "public display" in accordance with Section 17 of the NRW State Nature Conservation Act. This procedural stage was decided by the planning committee with prior consultation of all district councils of the City of Aachen and the Committee for the Environment and Climate Protection.

In addition to the further developed draft documents of the landscape plan, which were amended based on the submissions, among other things, the subject of the consultation was the administration's proposal for weighing up the suggestions, information and objections submitted by the public as well as the authorities and bodies.

The final decision on the issues to be weighed up is made at the end of the process by the Aachen City Council, which must ultimately approve the landscape plan as a statute.

The consultation took place in public on the following dates:

• 29.11.2023, BV Laurensberg (B5), consultation result: recommendation
• 06.12.2023, BV Brand (B1)/BV Haaren (B3), consultation result: recommendation
• 10.01.2024, BV Kornelimünster/Walheim (B4)/BV Eilendorf (B2), consultation result: recommendation
• 17.01.2024, BV Mitte (B0), consultation result: recommendation
• 24.01.2024, BV Richterich (B6), consultation result: recommendation
• 20.02.2024, Planning Committee (PLA), Consultation result: Decision