Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar

In their land use planning legislation, the federal states have accorded the planning departments and regional associations the option of not only preparing forward projections for the regional plans, but also to amend them in isolated cases as required.

For example, three partial forward projections of the regional plan for the areas flood control, wind energy and large-scale retail trade projects have been conducted by the former Rhine-Neckar-Odenwald Regional Association during the past few years. In the same manner, the former Rhine-Palatinate planning department updated the retail trade theme area with a partial forward projection of the Rhine-Palatinate Regional Spatial Development Plan. A large number of individual amendments have also been made to the currently valid regional plans in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region.

A so-called regional plan revision procedure must always be initiated when the basic underlying intentions of the regional planning are affected by a development proposal. In addition, specific amendments to the plans which do not call into question the basic intentions of the planning projects can be brought about by the supreme spatial development authorities in mutual agreement with the planning departments and regional associations by means of proceedings for obtaining permission to deviate from a planning objective.