Nature conservation; environmental assessment in urban land-use planning

On the basis of the German Building Code (BauGB), all new urban land-use planning procedures commenced after July 20, 2004, i.e. all development and land-use plans, are generally subject to an environmental assessment obligation when they are drawn up, amended, supplemented or revoked. This does not apply to urban land-use plans that can be drawn up using the simplified procedure.

The environmental impact of the urban land-use plan must be determined and described and evaluated in an environmental report. The assessment covers the environmental protection issues listed in Section 1 (6) No. 7 and Section 1a BauGB, insofar as they are foreseeable and significant. In addition to the aspects of nature conservation, other environmental impacts, for example on people and their health, the population as a whole or on cultural and material assets, are also examined and evaluated. The environmental report forms a separate part of the explanatory statement.

Differentiated specifications on the content of the environmental report can be found in the annex to the BauGB. This also includes information on other possible planning options, a forecast if the plans are not implemented and information on the planned monitoring measures.

In addition, there is an obligation to inform the public in a statement to the environmental report about the way in which the environmental concerns and the results of the public and official participation were taken into account in the urban land-use plan and the reasons why the plan was chosen after weighing up the other planning options that were examined and considered. A corresponding summarizing declaration must be attached to the urban land-use plan after the resolution has been passed together with the announcement. It must be kept available for inspection together with the plan and the explanatory statement.