Amendment of noise immission control regulations due to the introduction of the new land-use area type „urban area“ (MU)
With the bill on the implementation of Directive 2014/52/EU in urban planning legislation, the new land-use area type “urban area (MU)” is introduced. Up to now, the “Technical Instructions on Noise Abatement” (TA Lärm) do not include any immission guide values for this new area type. These shall now be defined when it comes to an amendment of the TA Lärm. Thus, the revised TA Lärm will specify the requirements to be met by operators of commercial and industrial plants so that harmful effects on the environment can be avoided in the future when noise caused by such plants will have its influence on urban areas.
Within the scope of the amendment of construction law, the Sports Facilities Noise Abatement Act (18th BImSchV) also has to be revised. The immission guide values for rest periods in the evenings, or for afternoon rest hours on Sundays and holidays, are to be increased by 5 dB(A) so that constructional densification in the cities is not favoured at the expense of sports activities. Also in the future, it should be possible to have sports fields in the cities and not only on the outskirts. Apart from immission guide values, the new regulation includes the (unchanged) investigation and assessment procedure.
Noise-emitting leisure facilities which are not subject to the 18th BImSchV are partly determined and assessed differently in the individual federal states. Often, the “Freizeitlärmrichtlinie”(Guideline for Leisure Noise) of the Federal Pollution Control Committee (LAI), a regulation dealing with noise emission in residential areas, is taken into account here.
In residential areas, noise immission from children’s playgrounds, day care centres and similar facilities usually has to be accepted, as it is customary. According to the Federal Immission Control Act, it cannot be regarded as a harmful environmental impact, but is still often determined and evaluated in the course of mutual consideration and planning optimization.
