Chemnitz 2030 housing concept
On 23 May 2018, the City Council took final note of the updated housing concept. The overall concept and the summary can be downloaded from this page.
Background
As the most important industrial city in the GDR, Chemnitz was particularly hard hit by the transformation and structural change after the political changes. The change in industrial structures and the drastic decline in population by almost a quarter since the 1980s led to a considerable need for urban redevelopment. The focus of the urban redevelopment process was the housing industry task of stabilising the housing markets and, in particular, reducing the vacancy rate.
Linked to this was the urban planning task of redefining the urban structures: rebuilding the city centre in the spirit of the "city of modernity", enhancing the value of the old districts and restructuring the large housing estates of industrial construction.
Against this background, the housing requirements concept was developed in 2009/10, with which comprehensive basic material on the structure and processes of the Chemnitz housing market was compiled. Several data sources were processed for the first time and three central tasks were pursued: the structural analysis of housing demand, the estimation of its future development in qualitative and quantitative terms and the derivation of the resulting options and necessities for action.
Occasion and goal
Since then, the Chemnitz housing market has evolved, the housing policy framework - for example the subsidy policy of the Free State of Saxony - has changed and new focal points have been added.
There are also new data sources such as the results of the 2011 census and the 2011 building and housing census or the Chemnitz 2017 housing market report. For these reasons, it made sense to update the concept. Building on the old concept, which focused primarily on recording the structures of the housing market, the update created more of a programme of action.
In this sense, the conditions and possibilities of different strategies for individual target groups and market segments were developed. Overall, the housing concept for the city of Chemnitz is intended to create a technically and empirically sound basis for deriving housing policy and urban planning objectives and measures. It should enable good and effective planning and management by the city administration and serve as a decision-making aid for local politics.
Flexible organisation
A so-called folder principle was chosen for the creation of the updated Chemnitz 2030 housing concept. On the one hand, this principle involves a coherent, consistent overall concept with a structure similar to that of 2009/10, which can be supplemented or updated over time by adding new topics or modules - without having to revise the entire concept.
This allows a high degree of flexibility to react quickly to certain topics or situations and still maintain integration into an overall concept. Each chapter is therefore at an individual editing stage and each chapter has its own page and figure numbering. The current status is shown in the table of contents.
Content parts
In terms of content, the new Chemnitz 2030 housing concept is divided into four parts:
PART A
Part A analyses the development of the Chemnitz housing marketsince 2008, including key figures on housing demand and supply, both in a regional comparison and differentiated by sub-area. There is also an in-depth analysis of rental and purchase price trends.
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PART B
In order to derive future options and needs for action, Part B contains the population forecast for the city of Chemnitz 2016 and, based on this, a household forecast as a quantitative basis for future housing demand.
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PART C
Part C covers thematic fields of action such as the further development of large housing estates or housing for the elderly. Selected scenarios and action strategies are developed for each field of action.
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The sub-spatial analyses and statements generally refer to the level of the spatial structure of the urban development concept, the so-called 12 SEKo areas.
Core statements:
- Chemnitz - a growing city - continues to grow
- More flats and fewer vacancies, more households and more small households
- Large housing supply - low rents and prices
- Increasing diversity in the large housing estates
- Old neighbourhoods with different future prospects
- Sufficient supply of social housing in old and new housing estates
- Greater variety of housing types required for senior citizens
- New qualities through new construction
Participation process
The creation of the concept between December 2016 and January 2018 was accompanied by a stakeholder-related participation and communication process.
The kick-off planning meeting in November 2016 between the representatives of the internal interdisciplinary working group under the leadership of the urban planning office and the external expert TIMOUROU was followed in January 2017 by a briefing of the planning, construction and environment committee on the process.
In spring/summer 2017, the consultant held bilateral expert discussions with stakeholders in the housing market.
In August and November 2017, the current status of the work was presented and discussed by the contractor Tobias Jacobs in front of the Mayor of Construction Michael Stötzer and the housing market stakeholders (representatives of the housing cooperatives, GGG, private interest groups) at two dialogue events. Questions were answered and comments, criticism and suggestions were taken on board. All of the dialogue rounds were able to sharpen the view of the problem; the insights gained were incorporated into the revised concept.
At the end of the development process, an information event was held in June 2018 for city policymakers with affected city and advisory councils to communicate the complex sectoral concept and the key statements.
In response to the city council's resolution and mandate (BA-002/2018 "Social housing"), the major housing companies were surveyed on the creation of affordable housing and the corresponding funding requirements in the first quarter of 2018. After holding a moderated expert discussion with members of the relevant municipal bodies in summer 2018, an additional separate component was added to the concept on 28 November 2018 to position this segment in Chemnitz's housing market and derive housing policy conclusions.