Sports development

In addition to a current assessment of the existing infrastructure and offers, the focus is on the sporting needs and expectations of Aachen's citizens, as well as the city's sports clubs and schools. A representative population survey and interviews with all Aachen schools and sports clubs were conducted for this purpose. For the planning process, the city of Aachen was divided into 15 "districts for sport and exercise", which were formed from the combined living spaces of the social development planning and taking sporting aspects into account. The results of the inventory and needs analyses were prepared on a neighborhood-specific basis and then recorded in neighborhood profiles.

In a steering group - made up of representatives from politics, administration, the city sports association, the health department of the StädteRegion, supplemented by experts from schools, organized sport and other interest groups - five thematic focus meetings (sport in public spaces, outdoor sports facilities, sports halls and spaces, development of offers, development of clubs) were initially held to develop results for the city as a whole. In a large workshop with experts from the 15 districts, these were broken down to the individual districts. Petra Prömpler, Head of the Municipal Department of Sport: "We are grateful for the lively participation of clubs, schools, citizens and many more, who have provided us with valuable suggestions on how we as the city of Aachen can adapt our services even better to the needs of sports enthusiasts. In addition to this external participation, we are particularly pleased that sport is also seen as a cross-sectional task within the administration, in which cross-departmental cooperation is used to always try to get the best for sport in Aachen."

For Dr. Julia Thurn from the renowned Institute for Cooperative Planning and Sports Development in Stuttgart, which supervised and created the city's sports development plan, the link to the neighbourhoods was also new and exciting: "The sports development planning in Aachen was an intensive project that was fun and characterized by a high level of commitment from everyone involved. What was special in Aachen was the link between sports development planning and social space planning and the close integration of sports, urban and social development."

On the basis of the surveys and the participation processes, overarching key objectives and associated packages of measures were formulated. These include the consistent expansion of Aachen's cycle paths with regard to the different needs for mobility and sport, a qualitative upgrade and addition of recreational sports areas, the continuation of the existing artificial turf program with revised criteria, the launch of a hall renovation program and the establishment of a sports portal as a central information and communication platform. Head of the sports department Kremer: "The sports development plan is a great basis and an orientation framework for promoting physical activity in our city. We are very much looking forward to implementing as many suggestions and proposals as possible. We would like to thank everyone involved, especially the city sports association, clubs, schools and politicians for their participation."

The chairman of the sports committee, Dr. Sebastian Breuer, attaches great importance to the sports development plan: "This sports development plan was created with the broad participation of citizens and clubs, and politicians also played an active role in it. For the sports committee, this is a very good basis for future decisions on optimizing the range of sports on offer in the city." Björn Jansen, Chairman of the Stadtsportbund, is also impressed by the results: "As the Stadtsportbund, we very much welcome the sports development plan. We have succeeded in looking at both organized and non-organized sport and drawing up proposals for further sports development that will make playing sport in our city even more attractive."

Outdoor sports facilities in public spaces