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Bill amending the Vienna Building Regulations, the 1996 Vienna Orchards Act and the 2008 Vienna Garages Act (2020 Building Regulations Amendment)
Vienna (OTS / RK) – LAbg. Dr. Kurt Stürzenbecher (SPÖ) secured his Vorrdener LAbg. Mag. (FH) Alexander Pawkowicz (FPÖ) that the SPÖ always advocates “ending speculation”. However, Stürzenbecher could not understand why Pawkowicz criticized the scope of the Viennese building regulations as too great. After all, the needs of a metropolis like Vienna are constantly changing, so legislative changes are also necessary. These laws would not be passed “for fun” but out of necessity. Recent changes to the building code have always brought “substantial improvements,” Stürzenbecher said. This bill also brings improvements for the Viennese: the amendment creates, for example, prerequisites for electronic processing of construction processes, complements “the catalog of urban planning objectives on climate issues”, adds an expert in climate protection to the advisory council and sets the EU Energy guidelines around.
Votes: The bill was approved unanimously. The FPÖ motions did not find a majority.
Draft law amending the Vienna building regulations
LAbg. DI Dr. Stefan Gara (NEOS) considered it important that the issue of solar energy use is now included more fully in building regulations. However, he criticized the scope of the obligation to use solar energy in the new building code: only a “minimum requirement” had been established. However, the city of Vienna has set itself the goal of increasing the number of photovoltaic systems to one million in the next ten years. Gara said this could not be achieved with this current minimum requirement. It is a “sea change”: “Buildings have to become power plants” and they have to generate as much energy as they consume. Otherwise, climate neutrality could not be achieved, Gara said. However, he hopes that the amendment to the law is at least a “boost” for a future “royal solar architecture” in Vienna. Gara filed a request to reform the parking space requirement. This will be superseded by a project-related parking space requirement on future residential construction projects. Parking spaces cost between 15,000 and 20,000 euros per 100 square meters, which makes housing more expensive and is “neither socially nor ecologically compatible”.
LAbg. Peter Kraus, BSc (Greens) said: This amendment is an “important step towards the solar future”. He explained to NEOS previous speaker Stefan Gara why the “minimum requirement” mentioned by Gara was chosen so low. That happened quite deliberately, Kraus said. In the run-up to the event, there was a lively exchange with the construction and project development industry, of which “there was a strong request” to make the commitment limit “very low.” It is more important to leave some scope “for the economic and technical maximum” in order to provide an incentive to achieve exactly that maximum.
LAbg. Stefan Berger (FPÖ) said that red-green was building very few community apartments. In its retirement five years ago, the city government announced that it would build 1,000 new community apartments per year. Today only 120 apartments are finished, criticized Berger. Instead, the city of Vienna is targeting the high-price segment and approving buildings that “don’t really fit into the urban landscape.” According to Berger, many Viennese felt ignored and their opinion ignored. Citizens have no real voice; what they said would not have a binding effect on the city’s political decisions, he complained. In a request, Berger called for the establishment of site image commissions in all districts of Vienna. Its purpose should be “to contain excessive building and avoid excessive building dimensions.”
LAbg. Dr. Kurt Stürzenbecher (SPÖ) explained to his previous speaker Berger from the FPÖ that there are many more community apartments on the rails than he claims. Furthermore, social housing is not limited to community buildings, but also includes other types of subsidized housing. The fact that a lot is being built in Vienna is due to population growth, Stürzenbecher said. The population is growing because there is a positive birth rate, but also because of the influx from other federal states and many EU countries. This rapid influx can be easily explained: Vienna “is the most attractive city on the planet.” The city is responding to growth by creating new apartments and infrastructure. The amendment to the building regulations described Stürzenbecher as a “soft entry” to solar energy, one does not want to “rush anything”, but take “moderate steps in the right direction”. Most importantly, meeting climate targets without imposing restrictions on residential construction, Stürzenbecher concluded.
LAbg. Georg Fürnkranz (FPÖ) bypassed a regulation in the building code amendment that could prevent another “urban development rift”. Fürnkranz was referring to the high-rise building at Heumarkt, “which, as is well known, has shaken Vienna’s status as a World Heritage Site.” Only the lack of specific regulations would have made a project of this size possible. Nothing was done in this amendment to prevent similar cases in the future. Fürnkranz detailed the history of the Heumarkt project and derived from it some demands, which he introduced through requests: First, he demanded the unrestricted preservation of the area or property protected with the title of “World Heritage” according to UNESCO criteria. Second, he wanted the neighborhood rights of the surrounding residents to be extended to the point where they went beyond a distance of 20 meters. And finally, he asked that the regulations for urban development contracts be specified in accordance with Section 1a of the Vienna Building Code, as this promotes “non-transparent processes” in its current form. (Cont.) Sep
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