Urban Development Planning & Development Plan Procedures

The development plan procedure (Bebauungsplanverfahren) is the legal foundation for any planned building development – whether for new residential areas, mixed-use quarters, commercial estates, special-purpose areas or public infrastructure. Its overriding aim is to order land uses in urban design terms and to fix them in planning law with legal certainty.

Acoustic investigations and forecasts form an indispensable basis for this. As part of the balancing of interests, they must establish whether the planned uses are compatible with their surroundings, what noise emissions will arise and, conversely, whether incoming noise jeopardises the protection to which new noise-sensitive uses are entitled.

Your Expert Partner for Acoustic Investigations in Development Plan Procedures

We support municipalities, cities, local authorities, public bodies, planners, architects and investors from the first urban design feasibility study, through the entire land-use planning process, to the legally binding development plan – including well-founded advice on immission control law.

Technical Scope & Core Services

Thanks to our many years of specialist expertise, we can assess your project at the stage of initial investigations or feasibility studies on request, clarify the key questions in advance and advise you constructively. We prepare professional noise immission forecasts, acoustic investigations and forecast calculations as an acoustic specialist contribution, through to recognised, robust acoustic expert reports in the following areas:

Noise Prevention

Noise prevention in land-use planning falls into two fundamental perspectives, both of which we investigate in full on your behalf:

Where new residential areas or sensitive uses move closer to existing transport corridors, commercial estates, commercial uses or sports and leisure facilities, we investigate and calculate the incoming noise situation comprehensively in accordance with the applicable codes (such as DIN 18005 for traffic noise, TA Lärm for commerce and industry, the 18. BImSchV or Sports Facilities Noise Ordinance, and the Leisure Noise Guideline). Where guide values or immission values are likely to be exceeded, we develop concepts for active noise protection measures (e.g. noise barriers or earth bunds) or – where active measures are not sufficient – dimension passive noise protection for buildings in accordance with DIN 4109 (including the governing outdoor noise level for the plan area).
Where the development plan procedure itself provides for noise-generating uses, these must be integrated into the plan in such a way that surrounding existing development is protected. In project-specific development plans (vorhabenbezogener Bebauungsplan), where the actual uses are already known, these can be examined directly within the procedure. In the case of a non-project-specific development plan (Angebotsbebauungsplan), we are glad to examine possible use scenarios on request, provided these can be named.

In concrete terms: we calculate the expected emissions in accordance with the applicable codes (TA Lärm for commerce and industry, DIN 18005 and the 18. BImSchV Sports Facilities Noise Ordinance, the Leisure Noise Guideline or the relevant state decrees, and similar).

If you are planning a commercial or industrial estate, we prepare an acoustic emission contingenting scheme: for the planning of commercial and industrial uses in a non-project-specific development plan, acoustic emission contingenting has become established as the standard and is now also anchored in the Federal Building Code (Baugesetzbuch). We determine and calculate precisely matched area-related sound power levels (emission contingents) in accordance with DIN 45691 and DIN ISO 9613-2, in order to preserve urban design flexibility while meeting immission control requirements exactly.

The modern statutory options and innovations for stipulations under the Federal Building Code are consistently incorporated into our analyses.

Complex Mixed-Use Situations & Multiple Noise Sources

In practice, various noise sources act together. We carry out the wide range of necessary investigations for you in accordance with national regulations, take an overall view, examine the reciprocal effects between the new plan and the existing development, and assess these according to the respective applicable assessment procedures. Where required, we also develop mitigation scenarios (active, passive or organisational) and make concrete proposals for stipulations.

State-of-the-Art Forecast Calculations & Presentation of Results

For all acoustic investigations we use powerful, state-of-the-art 3D model calculation software. In addition to preparing expert reports in conformity with regulations and codes, we can present the results in a highly illustrative and striking form on request (e.g. as area-wide colour grid noise maps, isophone plans, isolines or difference maps). This makes noise situations, points of conflict and the effectiveness of proposed noise protection measures transparent and readily understandable in political committees, among stakeholders and in public.

For more detailed investigations into specific noise types such as industrial and commercial noise, sports noise or leisure noise, please also refer to our respective specialised service modules.