08 Dec. Land grab: Federal government cements construction projects with concrete paragraphs at the expense of citizen participation and thus nature conservation
Every day in Germany, an area of 56 hectares is built on for settlements and infrastructure - the equivalent of around 79 soccer pitches. The German government's original goal of keeping this land consumption below 30 hectares from 2020 has therefore failed and has been postponed to 2030. The fact that the German government does not seem to be taking its long-term goal of following the EU Commission's targets and achieving net-zero land consumption by 2050 seriously is shown by the planned amendment to the so-called concrete paragraph.
Under no circumstances should we accept that the participation of citizens is so consistently excluded. The rapid consumption of land has devastating ecological and social consequences.
One reason for the failure of the land-saving targets is Section 13b of the German Building Code, which was originally only intended as a temporary solution to quickly and easily create affordable housing in conurbations. Initially planned until the end of 2019, paragraph 13b restricted public participation in the designation of new building land and suspended nature conservation law in construction planning, among other things. Now the paragraph is to be permanently incorporated into the Building Code. A free pass to circumvent public participation and undermine the protection of soils and biodiversity.
"What should actually benefit urban development has turned out to be a catalyst for land sealing in Germany. In over 80 percent of construction projects under Section 13b, only detached and semi-detached houses were built on greenfield sites. This law has therefore clearly missed its target and does nothing to combat our housing shortage. On the contrary, paragraph 13b accelerates the destruction of valuable and already scarce natural areas," says Manuela Ripa, Member of the European Parliament for the Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP). "Under no circumstances should we accept that the participation of citizens is so consistently excluded. The rapid consumption of land has devastating ecological and social consequences: Important habitats and farmland are being permanently destroyed, vital biodiversity is being further decimated and the development of urban and settlement cores is being immensely weakened. The development of fresh land must therefore be carried out extremely sparingly and only after careful consideration. Public participation is central to this - which is what the Building Code actually provides for," emphasizes Ripa and concludes: "Including the paragraph permanently in the Building Code not only contradicts the sustainability goals of the federal government, but also the obligation to conserve land in the Building Code itself. Furthermore, the omission of the environmental impact assessment is not compatible with applicable EU directives. I can only speak out in favor of deleting paragraph 13b from the Building Code without replacement. Instead, we must finally focus on reusing brownfield sites."