Architect does not want to supervise construction - new building permit?

Hello everyone,
I have a question: An architect has concluded a contract for work with a public client (municipality) and has completed the planning and the building application to the extent that the building permit is about to be issued.

Now, however, for various reasons, the architect no longer wants to supervise the construction and the municipality does not want to insist on contract fulfillment to which it would be entitled according to the contract for work.

How would things proceed now?

As far as I know, a tender would have to be issued for a new architect for the construction project.

But what does this mean for the building permit? Will the architect take over the planning or completely reevaluate and redesign everything and thus submit a new building application, resulting in a significant delay until construction can begin?

If the municipality has a falling out with the architect and he withdraws his design on copyright grounds, the municipality will indeed have to re-tender the planning contract. If it retains a right of use to the design, it can of course implement the approved design with another architect. Are you a councilor and did "your" municipality send the architect packing, or how do you come up with such "strange" questions?

No, I am a firefighter and it is about a fire station.

Are there any experiences regarding how much the start of construction could be delayed if the planning contract has to be re-tendered? 1 year or even longer?

PS: The architect is not to be "terminated," but wants to hand over the contract for health and personnel reasons, and the municipality would not take any action against it, even if it were legally not possible, as otherwise there would likely be problems and difficulties during the execution phase.

If there is no rift between the client and the architect and the architect agrees upon the amicable termination of the architect’s contract to continue using his design (or it is agreed that the client acquires the architect’s copyrights), then while it is certainly not the ideal solution to have another architect take over the site management, a redesign is not necessary. Since he owes an approvable design, I would only terminate the contract after the building permit has been issued. Everything else is craftsmanship. You presumably are not planning to rebuild Zaha Hadid’s fire station (?), a "standard" fire station is structurally rather mundane and can also be managed by architect X.

Thank you, no, this concerns a renovation/ conversion and expansion.