Abnormal parking space regulation - legal action or ignore?

Parking spaces in front of the garage are impractical / not used, etc.:
We have 1 car and 2 parking spaces in the garage and parked in front of it. There will never be a need to rearrange parking. We are not car enthusiasts! We want to keep just one car. We want to spend nearly 800,000 EUR on a house and have a 10-year-old Seat Leon. We are not the car people. That will never become reality for us.

With that, you are certainly in the minority. Anyone building a large house and living in a rural area tends to have more cars than someone living in a big city with good public transport connections.

In 20 years, it could look completely different:
Futures research shows that in 20 years people will probably hardly own their own cars anymore. Our children will probably never get a driver’s license because cars will be self-driving. You will press a button in an app, and the car will come from a hangar or somewhere else and stop in front of your house. After use, it will disappear again to the next user. The future is mobility as a service, not everyone having their own car. Futurists agree on this to a large extent. So why should I build 7 parking spaces for a scenario that most likely will never occur? That is old-fashioned and oriented towards the past.

That is still a long way off and will initially remain unaffordable for many. Just like an electric car currently is pure luxury, economically not worthwhile, and often impractical due to lack of charging options.
And if something like that comes, it will happen first in big cities and not in rural areas. So cars will still be needed. Maybe in 20 years almost without combustion engines, but the vehicle will still need to be parked somewhere.

200m² is large:
That’s true. We are both employed and work almost 100% of the time from home office. Therefore, we need 2 large office rooms, so about 35m² extra arises for the home office. As a buffer, we have also planned a second children's room. Otherwise, I would not call our planned house unusual (2 children's rooms, 1 living/dining/kitchen area, 1 bedroom, 2 offices). I have also posted the floor plan here in the subforum for floor plan planning; I’ll see if I can copy it in here somewhere tonight.

Of course your planned house is unusual. Sorry to say it so directly, but you obviously don’t know how most people live in Germany. Because hardly anyone can afford a house for 500k or in your case even 800k! That group of people is very, very small. 200m² is very large and also two offices of 18m² each are big. Often companies don’t even provide that much space per person.

Therefore, we need 2 large office rooms, so that an additional approx. 35 m² for the home office will be required.

I would wish to have a 35 m² two-person office at my workplace. That is very large and would be my first starting point where about 10 m² of living space could be saved. My wife also works a lot from home and has an 11 m² office in our house, which is sufficiently large for a workstation and folders - work supplies shelving. Sure, a little larger would be nice, but 35 m² falls under the category of open-plan office in some companies.

(...) according to the lawyer, this would not be a reasonable margin of discretion because in the specific situation 7 parking options are not appropriate

In fact, there are only 5 parking spaces because the area in front of your garage is officially so-called storage space and not a recognized parking space.

I can submit that tonight.

That will probably be best. Otherwise, that is a lot of guesswork :)

Prospects of success of the legal approach: A few months ago, I spoke with a lawyer specialized in construction law about this. His statement was that a parking space allocation must allow for a reasonable margin of discretion; otherwise, it would be per se invalid. This is done in the current statute by allowing exemption permits upon application. So if we were to apply for an exemption permit and it gets rejected, according to the lawyer, that would not be a reasonable margin of discretion because in the specific situation, 7 parking options are not appropriate (the real need is based on the number of people and cars and not on the living space, which is just a proxy). Therefore, the lawyer was convinced that we would be legally very likely to succeed. However, we would have to bear the costs ourselves (although we have legal protection insurance, it does not cover this). Hence, I am very surprised that you all see this so negatively here, because I heard something quite different from the lawyer.

I think that's good! It is your land and you should do everything in your power to be able to use it in a way that fits your life situation. If legal counsel also views this positively, even better.

We are not the car people. That will never become a reality for us.

I think that’s fine, but the municipality cannot see it as a guaranteed argument. Attitudes and owners can change.

Future research shows that in 20 years people will probably hardly have their own cars anymore.

It looks like individual mobility will be reorganized, I agree with you on that. The municipality cannot be blamed for not relying on this and instead acting today.

Therefore I am very surprised that you all see this so negatively here, because I heard something completely different from the lawyer.

Well, the lawyer earns his money from this and in case of a victory has a great reference and in case of losing no big damage.

Therefore we need 2 large office rooms so that for the home office about 35 m² extra will be needed

Actually, it would be fair to involve the employer then...

I have a home office corner in the bedroom. Think about 2 sqm … everything works

I get 8.5 m² gross, so without cupboards and shelves, which also have to serve as general storage space, as well as the sofa bed for guests.