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In the German region* of Baden-Würrtemberg, as in most other German regions, the ownership of cars is supported by numerous subsidies. One of them is the duty to provide parking space for cars towards everybody who builds housing facilities. This guarantees car users free or very low price parking. The City of Freiburg has now removed this counterproductive incentive from residents of the new district of Vauban.
The Model District Vauban is part of the city of Freiburg which has about 200,000 inhabitants and an area of 153 km2. The city belongs to the German state Baden-Württemberg in the south-west of the country. The town itself is situated between the Black Forest and the River Rhine, close to the French (3 km) as well as to the Swiss border (42 km). The Population has grown from 175,000 in 1988 to 186,000 in 1996 which is appr. 1,5% per year (cf. Freiburg 1996). The area of the town as a whole has not increased significantly over this period, but there has been a shift of land use from agricultural (1985: 46 km2; 1997: 39 km2) to settlement area (1985: 40 km2; 1997: 46 km2). This means that about 6 or 7 km2 of agricultural land has been built over.
* The German political system is formed by a federation of States (”Bundesländer” or ”Länder”), the regional level. The national level (”Bundesrepublik”) is a federal body.
The City of Freiburg has grown rapidly in recent years leading to a rising demand for land to develop new housing. This trend cannot continue without serious damage to the environment. One reason that new housing developments need so much land is the federal requirement for each household to have a parking space. If an area can be designated for car free-living, much less land is required.
In 1994 a group of committed citizens of Freiburg got together on the former military area of Vauban to discuss its future development. During the meetings the idea was born to create a new – socially and ecologically oriented – model district. They established the ”Forum Vauban” e.V. (registered club) as the body responsible for the organisation of the civil involvement. One of the ideas was to create a living district without parking space and without cars, but according to the regional law car-free living was not possible. In the beginning the local authority was very sceptical about the idea, but in 1996 the Forum brought about a decision of the city council such that a residential area for about 350 living units planned without parking space was made possible. And at the beginning of 1998 a solution was found to realise the car-free option as well. This created a considerable financial incentive for non-car-owners, because they were able to save most of the money that would otherwise have been spent on constructing the obligatory parking bay.
Painstakingly, the Forum group had to negotiate with the local administration over the definition of the legal arrangement and practical implementation. Today the model district ”Living without an own car” is on its way to become one of the biggest ones of this kind in Germany.
In most regions in Germany, like in some other European countries, the building regulations (”Landesbauordnung”) include a special clause obliging anyone who wants to build a house to also provide a parking space. The reason given for this regulation is to relieve the municipality of the duty to meet the demand for parking in public space and at public expense. In fact, this is a hidden subsidy for car-traffic, though, because the costs for the parking space will be paid by the owner or renter of the apartment, whether they own a car or not.
The idea behind the Vauban scheme is to provide the opportunity to choose between different residential areas within the neighbourhood. New residents can decide whether they want to live without car, without parking-space or in a conventional living area. The new district is divided into options of different living areas :
1. Living without parking space is on sites A, B and C of the first section. In this area houses cannot have their own parking space. It has to be planned instead in a collective garage at the edge of the residential area.
2. Living without your own car is possible within the whole first section. If the resident signs a contract stating he will live without a car, he or she is suspended from the duty to build a parking space. This contract has to be renewed every year.
3. In area D (conventional living), conventional regulations apply and a parking space must be built with any house.
So what is the difference? A person that chooses the carless option of living gets a financial incentive to reward the environmentally friendly decision. There are additional advantages like a better living quality, safer playing areas for children and less ground covered by concrete.
The association ”Forum Vauban” was founded in autumn 1994 by citizens as the body responsible for the coordination of all forms of participation of citizens. In 1996 the Forum was financed by the German Federal Foundation for Environment (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt). Since summer 1997 it has been supported by development funds of the LIFE-programme of the European Union. The ”Forum Vauban” has become a centre for information exchange between citizens, administration, local council and academic institutions.
To support the citizen’s interest of carless living towards the city council an association (”The car-free club”) was founded.
The city administration grants the planning permission. All other formalities between the resident and city are handled by the association. It was founded in February 1998 and is coordinating all activities concerning the ”living without an own car” – model district.
The recently modified version of the building regulations in the state of Baden-Württemberg intends to allow exceptions of the regulation. The municipality has to release someone of the duty to build a parking space on condition that inhabitants:
• can prove that they do not need a parking space
• possesses a open space on which a parking space can be built in case that they want to buy a car later.
This requires a special contract. First, the inhabitant has to declare that he refuses a car-ownership and therefore does not need a parking space. This is independent of the question if the house or apartment is owned or rented. In fact, one third of the apartments in the district are rented flats.
Moreover an agreement with the association has to be signed proving that there exists a space which is reserved as a potential parking space.
With the signing of these two documents the inhabitant is suspended from the duty to provide a parking space. And the association assures the city council that it will buy, collectively, a piece of land and provide it as potential parking space. The members of the association can decide upon the use of the area.
This exception changes the situation that everyone has to build, and pay for, a parking space even if they have no car.
A helpful background for the successful implementation is – as well as the wish of the inhabitants to live in such a neighbourhood – the existence of good public traffic facilities, cycleways, car-sharing etc.
The planning permission (Baugenehmigung) given by the administration includes the exception of the duties to provide a parking space, if
1) the car-free-declaration is signed
2) the existence of a area reserved for potential later use as a parking space is proved within the district
3) the compliance with the agreement is confirmed every year
Moreover every inhabitant has the duty to announce the administration when the agreement is not kept any longer.
The car-free declaration contains the assent that none of the inhabitants of the household owns, or permanently uses, a motor vehicle. The use of car-sharing, taxis are expressly allowed. This duty has to be handed over to the renter or any other legal successor.
An agreement between the association and the inhabitant obliges the resident to pay 3400 Euro. The association in return buys a piece of land of 8 m2 for each household. This contract includes a requirement that the association collects the car-free-declarations and hands them over to the building authority. The agreement also states that if the city wishes to revoke the exception the association has to provide enough parking space. If there is no free parking space left in the conventional living area of the district that means that the association has to build parking bays on the reserved land.
The resident then has to pay 14,500 Euro for the building of the parking space and the maintenance costs. This money can be saved when staying without a car.
Membership of the association entitles the resident to use of the area saved for potential parking space, an influence on the actual use and the right to elect the managing committee directly as well as the managing director indirectly. These persons make the main decisions. To become a member of the association one has to pay the initial 3,400 Euro and an annual sum of about 35 Euro for the maintenance of the piece of land owned by the association.
The agreement under public law between the city and the association includes a duty on the association to prove all residents that are members of the association are carless. If the city revokes the exception of the regulation for a resident, the association has to build the required parking space. The city can revoke the exemption if a household has not signed its annual car-free contract or it is evident that a household is not keeping the conditions of the contract (e.g. by owning or regularly using a car without parking space on the area and therefore parking it in another neighbourhood).
The association bought a piece of land from the city of Freiburg as a potential place for the building of parking spaces. This pieces of land can be used by all carless residents that proved to the local authority the existence of a potential parking space for their household. The association is also responsible for the care of this land and to create a use for it as defined by the members. What the land will be used for is still unclear, the members of the association have yet to decide. Ideas include: playground for children, sports ground or barbecue site.
Moreover the association collects every year the confirmation of the car-free-declaration from all households and hands it over to the city council. The association acts as a mediator between the city and the carless households.
The members of the Forum are still trying to involve more partners (like the local public transport company) to provide the best mobility facilities for residents. There is a budget to support such facilities (e.g. bicycle loans or price-reduced tickets for public transport) at the beginning.
In the preparation stage legal advice, some staff and promotional work was required. The legal survey cost 15,000 Euro and was financed half by the city of Freiburg, half by the ”Forum Vauban” which is supported by the European Union within the LIFE-Project. Moreover, a great deal of work was done by volunteers.
The purchase and maintenance of area chosen to provide the potential parking space cost about 375,000 Euro. These costs are borne fully by the non-car owning residents, so the municipality incurs no extra costs.
The offer of reasonable priced, ecological buildings, sustainable energy concepts and carless living attracted a lot of people. There is a particularly large interest in the carless-concept and the Forum team estimates that 30 -35% of the residents in the new district want to live without a car. First results will be available from summer 1999, when the most residents will move into their houses. At the moment (August 1998) most building plots are already sold and 116 of 328 households have taken the advantage and declared to live without a car.
The process will be assessed methodically by the LIFE-Project. The Forum team intends to design a questionnaire which will be delivered to all households to find out if, for example, the households have been car-free before or only decided now to give up their car-ownership. Only then will the actual change in behaviour be known.
At the beginning the city administration reacted cautiously because they thought that the concept would not work. The question of whether the living-without-car concept would be accepted by many people went through a lot of debate. Would there be violations of the regulations and how can they be policed? It is still possible that residents could violate the agreements and park cars in front of their houses, for example. One cannot be sure that some residents are only looking to find a cheap house and do not intend to obey the regulations. It remains to be seen if social pressure can regulate the behaviour of the neighbourhood or if the administration will have to prosecute illegal parking with fines up to 50,000 Euro.
But large scale violations are very unlikely. The attractiveness of owning a car decreases the further the car is parked away from the apartment. Because there won’t be public parking space in the district, cars would have to be left in the next district. Most residents are unlikely to find that attractive.
The aim of the policy is a flexible solution. Different types of living area within a district should generally be possible. In every city there should be the opportunity to live in a car-free area for those who want it. And, as this example shows, it is possible to agree an exemption to the building regulations. But such changes often require the initiative of residents together with some perseverance. At the moment these building regulations are subject for discussion in several German states and an amendment might lead to a situation in which exemptions are easier to obtain or even become standard practice.
With this policy, the City of Freiburg is starting to create incentives for more economic use of land. Along with regulatory measures, like land-use plans stipulating more compact development, residents and later the local authority, have started a strategy of land-efficient development. This path will have to be followed by other cities too – learning from first movers like Freiburg.
Mr. Laurenz Hermann (project co-ordinator)
Ms. Claudia Nobis (traffic expert)
Merzhauserstr. 170/37
D - 79100 Freibug i.Br. (Germany)
telephone +49 - 761 - 40 77 73
facsimile +49 - 761 - 40 73 95
email forum.vauban@t-online.de
taken from:
First Mover Advantage by Eco-efficiency - local incentives for environment and employment, Guide on economic instruments for local and regional authorities, An ICLEI "Policy & Practice Series" Publication, Including a foreword by Ritt Bjerregard, European Commissioner
Publishers: The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE), Editor: Konrad Otto-Zimmermann (responsible), Authors: Christoph Erdmenger, Sandra Schreckenberger
Paperback, DIN A4, 114 pages, 30 DM
See also http://mail.iclei.org/store1/merchant.ihtml?pid=103&step=4
© ICLEI, Freiburg, 1998