On 25.02.2025, all property owners, residents, tradespeople and interested parties were invited to an information event at the Forum of the Volkshochschule Aachen. Among other things, the background and objectives of the new preparatory studies were explained and questions about the process could be asked.

To the presentation

Following the demolition of the parking garage, a new public open space (the "open meadow") with accompanying buildings is to be created in the southern section. Prostitution will be spatially concentrated in Antoniusstraße. The buildings and properties in the entire area are to be sustainably developed.

The basis for this are the recent committee resolutions - for example the resolution on the "open meadow" target variant and the early participation in development plan 999, which was carried out as a further development of this resolution.

Development plan 999 is currently being drawn up, which is intended to create the legal basis for transforming the eastern inner city area into a high-quality old town quarter.

The most important basis for the redevelopment objectives and their derivation is the final report of the preparatory investigations adopted together with the articles of association on 8 June 2022.
Chapter 3 is dedicated to the redevelopment objectives in detail.

Redevelopment law is part of special urban development law. It serves to remedy so-called "urban planning deficiencies" and is limited in time and space. It is intended to ensure that the public sector and private actors contribute equally to remedying urban development deficiencies and achieving the redevelopment objectives. The following points must be observed for this to succeed:

- In the Büchel old town district, private construction projects and property transactions, among other things, are subject to approval. This means that separate approval under redevelopment law is required for building applications, demolitions, property encumbrances, property sales and similar transactions. The legal basis is Section 144 of the German Building Code (BauGB).

- For sub-area 1, the increase in the land values of private properties that can be attributed to the redevelopment measure with its public investment and regulatory measures will also be used to finance the redevelopment measure. As a rule, this takes place after completion of the redevelopment measure - i.e. in approx. 10 years at the earliest. The legal basis is §§ 152-156a BauGB.

- In the entire area, the owners of buildings, among others, must provide the municipality with the information required to carry out the redevelopment. The legal basis is Section 138 BauGB.

The aim of these instruments is to ensure that both public and private properties in the redevelopment area remain capable of development in terms of building law and economic viability and are developed in line with the redevelopment objectives. The redevelopment law is based on cooperation - obstacles to approval can also be removed by concluding urban development contracts, for example.

Approval under redevelopment law requires a separate application, which must be submitted informally in writing to the City of Aachen.
Please contact us at an early stage if you are planning changes to your property or if you have the impression that your project falls under Section 144 (1) and (2) of the Building Code.

As a note for property owners and notary's offices, a redevelopment note will be entered in the land register. If you fail to submit a separate application for approval under redevelopment law and we become aware of this, we will contact you with a request to submit an application

A successfully completed urban redevelopment measure remedies urban planning deficiencies and sustainably upgrades the location. In addition, the Income Tax Act provides property owners with improved tax write-off options for modernization and repair measures in redevelopment areas.

Neighborhood architects were found with the smaa office to support property owners and developers in the following areas:

• Funding (grants, fixed amounts, promotional loans)
• Design (form, materiality, color)
• Building regulations (fire protection, accessibility, etc.)
• Building planning law (property encumbrances, etc.)
• New construction, conversion, refurbishment (addition of storeys, extension, closing gaps between buildings, etc.)
• Utilization concepts, brainstorming (support in the search for users)

The district architects can be contacted here: buechel@smaa.studio