What is a “Bebauungsplan”?

June 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Paragraph Symbol - ©Can Stock Photo Inc. / froxxEver since I started following the proceedings at Oberursel’s town hall more closely, I kept coming across the word “Bebauungsplan”.  I knew that it had something to do with planning permission, but I noticed that there were several stages involved and decided to find out more.

My previous knowledge about such things probably explains it in the most simple terms.  Towns in Germany define Bebauungspläne for particular areas to specify what type of buildings can be built there, eg. residential, commercial or industrial, and the limits that these buildings can have.  So there are rules that I have come across in our road on what percentage of a plot of land can be built on and how much floorspace a house can have.

But they can also include details such as areas set aside for recreation, or which type of plants will be used, or where car parking spaces will be.

The whole thing is set down in German building law, § 9 BauGB to be precise. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Property Tagged With: , , , , ,

How Oberursel plans to increase childcare costs

June 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Oberursel's town hallTwo weeks ago I sat in on a meeting of the town council where the charges for Kindergarten places were discussed at length.  Now the town administration has come up with new proposals that will be put to the next town council meeting for approval.

It is worth taking a moment to look at the demands that parents had made a few months ago when the topic first arose.  Many of them have been fulfilled, such as keeping the Siblingbonus in place and not reducing the quality or number of places available in the town.

They also wanted the increase to take place in several steps, which is what will now happen.  The increases will take effect on 1st August 2012, 1st February 2012 and 1st August 2013.  However they insisted that the increase should be “moderate”.  The question is: what is moderate?

At the town council meeting some parties were more direct, and announced the highest percentage that they considered to be reasonable.

In the end, however, some people will end up with a larger increase than many wanted. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A visit to the Hessentag in Wetzlar

June 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A flag at the Hessentag in WetzlarHaving spent ten days last year writing about the Hessentag in Oberursel, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to visit the event this year in Wetzlar.  Although I did not set out to do a direct comparison with last year, the headline in the Oberurseler Woche claiming “Oberursel war schöner” (Oberursel was nicer) intrigued me as well.

And so it was that I set off on Friday morning to drive to Wetzlar, which is about 45 minutes by motorway from Oberursel.

I followed the signs from the motorway exit to the car park, and my heart sunk when I saw which one the route had taken me to: P12.  The furthest car park away from the Hessentag area!

Luckily there was a shuttle bus to take me into town.  Unluckily it did not actually leave from the car park, so my Hessentag experience started with a short walk through a field alongside a river, to where the bus was waiting.  It must say something about the distances involved that there were even toilets laid on for people waiting for the bus at this point. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hessentag Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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