Impact regulation

The impact regulation in accordance with § 14 ff. BNatSchG are intended to avoid and minimize the negative consequences of interventions in nature and the landscape. The polluter is obliged to compensate for unavoidable impairments through nature conservation and landscape management measures (compensatory measures) or to replace them (replacement measures). The impact regulation is to be applied in outdoor urban development areas; in indoor areas, it is generally taken into account in advance when determining development plans. The nature conservation compensation must be targeted (a mere set-aside is not permitted) and must be secured and maintained by the person who caused the intervention or their legal successor for as long as the intervention continues.

Interference with nature and the landscape must always be avoided. If this is not possible, the impact should preferably be compensated for on site in a timely and function-related manner. If no equivalent compensation is possible, an equivalent replacement must be carried out in the affected natural area. Compensation measures do not have to be carried out in the immediate vicinity of the place of impact, nor do they necessarily have to be function-related (example: for 500 m² of newly sealed arable land, 1000 m² of previously intensively used grassland is converted to extensive use). Only if none of these alternatives are possible should the so-called compensation payment to the Thuringia Nature Conservation Foundation be considered, whereby the amount of money is based on the costs saved for compensation/replacement and is used elsewhere for nature conservation measures.

Eco-account

The city of Gera provides areas for suitable measures in a so-called "eco-account". Areas are suitable if they have ecological enhancement potential. The initial condition of the areas is assessed and documented by the nature conservation authority. In the event of an encroachment, the administration can promptly present an investor with an area with a development concept that corresponds to the urban planning and on which adequate compensation can be provided. This should help to speed up approval and development planning procedures. The city can also implement ecological enhancement measures in advance and then only charge the investor for the costs already incurred. The costs are reimbursed via a statute/determination in accordance with Section 135 BauGB in the case of urban land-use planning or via ancillary provisions/contract in the case of approval.

In the landscape plan, the city has identified potential areas for measures to protect and develop soil, nature and the landscape, which will be shown as binding for the authorities when the land use plan is drawn up. Supplemented by further areas, a coherent overall concept is to be created from this in the near future.

Species protection according to § 44 BNatSchG

With the implementation of the provisions of the Habitats and Birds Directives on the protection of animal and plant species protected under European law into German nature conservation law, species protection concerns must be taken into account in all planning and construction projects. This also applies to residential areas and the urban area itself. If habitats of particularly protected animal species are removed in the course of a building renovation or demolition project, new replacement habitats must be created.