Conversion and development of land for building

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

Maybe someone can help, assuming man A. has inherited a piece of land, but this land is not developed. It turns out that it is used for agricultural and forestry purposes or that the land as such exists. And the city was already interested in creating a development plan with the previous owner two years ago, but the previous owner heard nothing more from the municipality. Man A. decides to contact the city to investigate what is going on with the land and whether there is a possibility to submit a request for a development plan, since it must be developed for building. He explained everything to the official, who then said, "We will check this and get back to you the same day," which he did, and said to man A. "We from the municipality are also already interested in the project and the land and also interested in developing it with you because we want to make a new residential area out of it." So far, so good, but there is a catch, as they continued to man A. "We would initiate this, but the development could take up to a year! Since we have already started a large project elsewhere." Now my question is "should man A. get this in writing? And if he does get it, could he in such a case get the development done faster by suing with a lawyer? Finally, the municipality already had such a plan two years ago and would then have to get the authorization from man A. and not the other way around. Would man A. have to wait for the city to finish project 1 first? Just because they failed back then to develop this building project into a new residential area??
How else could he be helped????
Kind regards.

Hi,

Man A should be very, very glad that the city didn’t get moving back then. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have inherited cheap land (which will now become very valuable) but expensive building land and would have paid a lot of inheritance tax for it.

Best regards,

Andreas

If I were mayor, I said to man A, you should engage in forestry if you come to me like that. And you certainly can't force a mayor and the associated city council to make man A rich.

Hello Pascal,

Person A is very likely dependent on the initiative of the municipality, meaning: if a lawyer should tell you that something can be done through legal action, you should be very alert, because the legal action route is normally excluded. "Normally" in this context means more than 99%.

Where building land arises or is allowed to arise is determined in the regional plan or the land use plan of the superior planning authority, which in your case (ZIP code 59192, whether the building plot is actually located there, of course I do not know) is the Arnsberg District Government. If the area is not approved as building land there, even the local mayor cannot do anything except to continue to inquire or to justify that the district government is rezoning the area.

The mayor cannot sue the district government either. However, I believe that the area is already rezoned in the land use plan or at least that it has already been discussed between the municipality and the district government, because otherwise the statement of the municipality would make no sense. The land use plan can be viewed at the responsible district government, usually also available online, which means you can check yourself whether it is basically approved for development or not. If yes, only the development plan is missing.

There may be special exceptions that enable a legal action route or already allow development now, but for that, some very specific conditions would have to be met, which I initially do not assume.

But basically it doesn’t sound bad; I would just inquire with the municipality at loose intervals. Alternatively: commission a planning office yourself to create a development plan and also have the necessary development carried out by an external developer, which however also means that you have to invest yourself initially. The municipality can agree to this if the area would actually be in high demand, but the investment on the part of the municipality would only occur later. But be careful: for this, you have to conclude a contract with the municipality or the development plan, which you have developed externally, must be adopted by the council. If the council does not like the draft, you might sink a lot of capital. So you should only pursue this path if you have the municipality on board from the start.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe

There is nothing to add to my predecessor. I would have written it similarly. Thumbs up!

After all, the municipality already had such a project planned 2 years ago and Man A. should then also have received the authorization and not the other way around. Would Man A. have to wait especially for the city until they have completed planning Project 1? Just because they missed the opportunity back then to develop this construction project into a new development area?? How else could he be helped???? Best regards.

Better to wait because without the land becoming building land, you have little chance of building your house. It would be really annoying to own a plot that you can only use for hunting and that without being a hunter.