Development of urban development funding in Chemnitz
Most people in Chemnitz remember the situation in our city at the time of reunification 30 years ago. Inner-city residential areas such as Brühl or Kaßberg, built more than 100 years ago for workers or the middle classes, were now grey and dreary. The city squares offered little quality for playing and relaxing, streets were stuffy with exhaust fumes.
The turnaround offered opportunities for renewal. The city council decided on comprehensive urban redevelopment measures in the Gründerzeit neighbourhoods. The then Office for Urban Renewal was founded. Urban renewal funding areas were defined, which participated in various funding programmes. The city very quickly and imaginatively tapped into the new opportunities to initiate the redevelopment of entire urban areas with grants from the federal government, the state and the EU, and always with a considerable share from its own budget. In 30 years of urban renewal with urban development funding, the city has invested 400 million euros from nine programmes in a total of 16 development areas.
Property owners have been encouraged to repossess and renovate their homes through targeted advice and support. Plans for the renovation of public buildings such as schools and cultural facilities were drawn up and implemented, streets were renovated and greened, and modern facilities for the supply of healthy heat and clean water were created.
And for the first time in decades, citizens were able to participate directly in the plans for the design of their living environment - that is urban regeneration in Chemnitz, successful and visible to everyone. Every euro of urban development funding generates around seven euros of follow-up investment in an economic cycle - no other public funding programme has such a high and direct impact on the city and its citizens. As a result, around two billion euros of investment in urban regeneration has been stimulated in Chemnitz in 30 years through funding. The Urban Regeneration Department in today's Urban Planning Office is responsible for coordinating these complex tasks.
The beginning: We are saving our Gründerzeit neighbourhoods
Firstly, at the beginning of the 1990s, the further deterioration of the valuable old buildings had to be stopped urgently, including many treasures of the architectural culture of the Wilhelminian period, valuable Art Nouveau façades. Living space that was needed. So the pragmatic approach was to seal roofs, dry cellars and combat dry rot. Immediate programmes of the Free State of Bavaria have helped owners with twelve million euros to save around 800 buildings, most of them monuments. The way was paved for modern refurbishment and good living in old buildings, and further funds were made available for refurbishment. In the meantime, Kaßberg, for example, has reached such a good level thanks to the 24 million euros in grants and 15 million euros in subsidised loans since 1991 that it could be released from the renovation and subsidy programme in 2015.
New ideas and space for participation
The participation of property owners and residents in urban renewal areas is not only written into the building code - it is a lived practice in our city. At local citizens' forums in 1994 in all redevelopment areas, publicly discussed competitions with architects to close the gaps left by the war on the Kaßberg, in the planning workshops with residents of Brühl on Zöllnerplatz or on the colourful gardens on Sonnenberg - there were and are many opportunities to get involved.
The EU "URBAN" programme led to the creation of the first community centre with the first neighbourhood management - the example has set a precedent. In the meantime, there are already five subsidised neighbourhood management centres with disposition funds for community projects (in the Reitbahnviertel, Schloßchemnitz, Brühl, Sonnenberg and the former Heckert residential area).
The "Socially Integrative City" programme in the Heckert area and at the Limbacher/Leipziger Straße entrance to the city has been supporting socially disadvantaged areas in particular for 15 years and has facilitated many pilot projects with local associations, such as the "Mc Turtle" mobile children's programme.
In 2011, many people from Sonnenberg jointly described their vision for their neighbourhood in future workshops and are now also active in the neighbourhood round table, coming together for spring cleaning and to come up with good ideas for upgrading the pedestrian tunnel to the train station. With the platformwww.sonnenberg-online.de, they have found a forum for their neighbourhood through urban development funding.
The Brühl: revitalisation of a city centre district
Since 2012, there has been an active Brühl management with many new or "old" Brühl stakeholders, which supports the promotion of the area from the "Active city and district centres" programme through its own activities. They are confidently working with the city on plans to design the boulevard, preserve the Brühl Gate and the ball lights. For young Chemnitz residents and students in particular, the Brühl is becoming an urban place and meeting point thanks to alternative projects such as the "Kultursommer" and "Baumwollbaum". With urban development funding and a great deal of personal contribution, the Bandbüro Chemnitz e.V. is about to inaugurate the "Musikkombinat" in the former Karl Liebknecht School on Mühlenstraße - also the creative home of the band "Kraftklub". Want to find out more and join in? Then just take a look at www.chemnitz-bruehl.de.
Urban regeneration is also culture and education
Every urban neighbourhood needs places for its residents that invite them to experience, educate and reflect. Numerous public buildings are therefore a focus of urban development funding in all redevelopment areas and are often also living monuments.
The new city centre has therefore been the focus of funding since 1997 with 100 million euros. Without urban development funding, there would be no "DasTIETZ" cultural department stores', the Gunzenhauser Museum or the new state archaeological museum "smac", nor the youth hostel on Getreidemarkt. The refurbishment of the "Tietz" was made possible by GGG mbH with a grant of eight million euros. The utility company eins energie in Sachsen received a grant of 3.6 million euros for the transformation of the unique Bauhaus building into a youth hostel in the centre of the city. The König-Albert-Museum offers the best conditions for the presentation of the art collections thanks to the refurbishment with urban development funding. Thanks to the careful refurbishment of the Schocken department stores' by GGG mbH with 28 million euros in funding, the "smac" has been attracting visitors to the unique building designed by architect Mendelsohn in Chemnitz since May 2014.
In other parts of the city, the focus is on promoting schools, daycare centres and churches as places of education and encounter. Thanks to funding, St Mark's Church has once again become a landmark of the Sonnenberg and a very popular venue for concerts. During the musical devotion, visitors can also admire the successful renovation of our town church St. Jakobi, which was made possible by almost five million euros from the "Urban Renewal" programme. The Free Protestant School Centre on Tschaikowskistraße has now developed so well following the subsidised renovation that it can barely keep up with demand.
A city in transition - urban redevelopment and new energies
Since the turn of the millennium, there have also been vacancies in residential areas with prefabricated housing, such as the Heckert area, as well as in old buildings in the city centre, despite comprehensive redevelopment. The Integrated Urban Development Concept 2002 and its update as the Urban Development Concept SEKO in 2009-2012 defined the urban development goals for urban redevelopment. Strengthening the inner-city residential areas by upgrading and stabilising the large housing estates, including by demolishing vacant properties, is a strategy that has since been supported with 102 million euros in funding from the "Urban Redevelopment East" programme. This also included the unavoidable demolition of 19,000 flats, as well as the securing of 66 old buildings in the city centre and the Sonnenberg model project with the partial demolition and modernisation of the prefabricated building at Bunten Gärten.
Right next door in Zietenstrasse, the first co-working space offers space for creative minds thanks to funding and a great deal of personal contribution. Energy requirements are falling. By adapting the technical infrastructure (district heating, gas, water and electricity), the city is also realising the goals of the adopted climate protection concept. Current examples of this are the innovative low-temperature district heating network (LowEx) with solar thermal field on Brühl and the new drinking water elevated tank on Leipziger Strasse.
Urban renewal and urban redevelopment are a process of a lively city and its inhabitants constantly adapting to new needs. New tasks need to be solved. The federal and state governments will continue to subsidise urban development and we are making use of this.