Reform of the building law – "Urban Areas" shall facilitate the densification
The German government intends to reform the building law in the course of this year and plans to introduce a new category of construction area. In the future, there will be so-called "urban areas" apart from residential or commercial areas. "Urban areas" represent a new mixture with revised minimum distances and new noise limit values. The new law will help the municipalities to classify new residential areas. The draft law intends more dense and higher buildings on development sites. As far as noise protection is concerned, for the new urban areas 3 dB higher immission values shall be valid in the future. Thus, the requirements on noise protection will be reduced and it will be easier to convert empty office buildings into residential buildings.
The noise conflict due to approaching residential buildings and due to noise emission requirements laid down in development plans are only some of the current topics of the Müller-BBM Expert Talks on 14/15 September in Berlin. Experts from the fields of planning, jurisdiction and execution explain their views. Among others, Dogan G. Yurdakul (Gesellschaft für Planung, Umwelt, Stadt, Architektur (Berlin)) gives a lecture on "Challenges and Solutions for the growing density in towns from the view of the town planner" and Dr. Tim Schwarz (Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt) talks on "Inner development and noise protection: Where stands the planning practice of Berlin from the view of the senate administration?"
