Building application is becoming increasingly complicated!

Hi, actually our building application was supposed to come this week.

Now our construction company has told us that the previous planning is not sufficient and the municipality needs exact information about the traffic areas, parking spaces, which plant species, etc.

I took a picture of the development plan for you, it shows the factors causing the current issues.
Apparently, the last section is important.

We have now sat down and drawn a sketch of what the construction company needs.
We also went to a tree nursery today to get some advice (it was fun).

It has now turned out that we will plant many hornbeams as the boundary/garden fence.
The municipality wants to know the species.

But for the parking space, path to the house, etc., we have to do something for infiltration, we just wrote "Haufswerkporig". I hope that's enough for them!?

Do you have any ideas, plans on how to design the front yard so that it meets the requirements?
I somehow have the feeling that the front yard has to please the municipality more than me :mad:

I actually wanted to design everything Mediterranean style with 2 palm trees on the left and right of the path to the front door :(

What are site-appropriate woody plants? And what does 25% ground cover mean?
If my calculations are correct, 25% of the front yard is about 14.5m².
Does that mean I have to green the entire 14.5m² continuously or can I do 10m² here, 2m² there and 2.5m² here?
Because otherwise I won’t be able to move around in the front yard anymore.

I definitely find it intense what they want to know even before construction starts. I thought I would decide all that step by step once the house is built.

Thanks for your help!
Regards

I don't think your sketch meets the requirement of a "qualified open space plan." What does your planner say about it?

What are location-appropriate shrubs?

Native shrubs. That should exclude Mediterranean palms. But you should consult a landscape gardener about it, maybe you can find something similar-looking that's native. Here, you can request a plant list from the office.

And what does 25% coverage mean?

My interpretation: the opposite of coverage would be "sporadic" here.

It all reads as if they want to prevent front yards from being sterile (rock gardens, ...), loveless/cheap (just grass without further planting/gravel/asphalt) or implemented with low priority (submitted directly with the plan). Ultimately, it serves the quality of the neighborhood. It's annoying if the established design guidelines don't fit your own concept. We practically have a whole book of such regulations here and sometimes we frown about them too, but in the end, it ensures consistent quality in the development area. Of course, this comes at the expense of individuality – although you can still be quite creative within the rules.

What are everyone's excuses for never having read the development plan – just out of curiosity? :D

Hi, the sketch is for my construction company, they will then make the plan.

I understand that palm trees are not native. But there must still be plants that look Mediterranean and are native at the same time.
Our nursery just said that native is a matter of interpretation, there are plants that are native throughout Europe and others only in northern Germany or the south. So it is very difficult.

If I have to plant 25% in one area, I won’t have a driveway or a path to the front door anymore... they must be crazy!
This is a small village... actually a district, but so remote and isolated that it could count as a village. If we were in the middle of the city, I could understand the requirements, but this is totally rural, with forest and fields all around.

Now I'll tell you something as a civil servant, something you normally aren't allowed to do in the office....submit the requested documents, they'll get stamped, approved, built, and let things develop. Don't provoke with a concrete front yard, but after building you're pretty broke anyway, and it ended up being more expensive, and the high-quality garden design, you just have to be a bit patient with that, and they will, no one wants to drive you into ruin. And then time passes....

Why do you have an architect? Your architect owes you an approval plan, meaning an approved building application. As long as this is not available, the architect will probably have to rework it with you.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

Hello,

And then time passes....

I wanted to suggest something along those lines as well. Give them a plan, then they are happy; whether it is actually planted that way afterwards is another matter. For example, you might have planned hazel bushes, but unfortunately you are now allergic to them...
You will probably have to put the palms in large pots anyway and bring them indoors for the winter. They probably won’t survive outside; your construction site would have to have a very warm microclimate for that.

Best regards,

Andreas