And that is what state politics must deliver, emphasized State Councilor Stefan Kaineder in a press conference on Monday in Linz. He rejected the demand that the municipalities should be deprived of their competences in zoning.
Currently, 13 soccer fields in arable and green areas are used up in Austria every day. In Upper Austria it is around 0.9 hectares. The current government program of the federal government provides for a maximum of 2.5 hectares to be sealed per day by 2030, which would mean 0.4 hectares for Upper Austria. “With the current black-and-blue spatial planning law, we are definitely not going to achieve this goal,” said Kaineder in the document to the press conference that it does not use any of the essential instruments. Surveys showed a new awareness of soil protection among the people across all party lines.
The deputy state spokeswoman Dagmar Engl presented the key points of the green soil protection program. So there must be agricultural priority areas that are legally taboo for building projects, according to the motto “Where our food grows, there is no more building”. Places of relaxation and retreat for people and habitats for wild plants and animals should be anchored in a state-wide green zone plan and should also not be built on.
A binding definition of settlement boundaries in the local development concept is intended to stop the wild growth of supermarkets on the green meadow. “Using vacancies would not only preserve the ground, but also strengthen the town centers, keep everyday routes short, reduce individual traffic and thus also strengthen climate protection,” argued Engl for the revitalization of places. Instead of huge parking spaces in front of shopping centers, supermarkets and large companies, there will be multi-storey or underground car parks in the future.
Engl also spoke out against depriving the municipalities of competencies in spatial planning. However, the instrument would have to be used more responsibly and foresightedly, and those responsible for the community would have to break away from the maxim that soil is there to be built on.
