Development plan deviations - the neighbors do not want to agree

According to my life experience, B plans are often ridiculously and unprofessionally created by offices that do not even manage to look at the conditions on site at least once.

However, it becomes difficult if the neighbors do not cooperate.

I cannot confirm that.

The neighbors would like us to have our entrance lower than the street. However, we do not want something like that.

How would it be the other way around, if you were asked? Would you support it or be against it? If you have fairness, you think neutrally and evaluate accordingly.

What exactly is prescribed? An exact height for the ground floor without tolerance? The city can, at its discretion, approve exceptions, preferably against a waiver fee. If I were you, I would make sure that despite the raised ground floor, the maximum absolute ridge and eaves height is adhered to. Then nobody can claim they get less sun on their face. I can certainly understand that you don't want to be below street level.

From my point of view, the following would be interesting:

[*]How much lower than the street level are you?
[*]Why do you absolutely not want to be below the street level? What exactly are your concerns about that?

Since all other neighbors, according to your statement, are at the same level as the street line, I can't really imagine that there are huge height differences on your property. Ultimately, it is always a question of justification for why one wants the exception and how much of an exception one applies for. Depending on the slope we are talking about for the access path, one could perhaps argue that the access path should be kept as barrier-free as possible and therefore the ground floor should be at the same height as the street. In addition, the comment has already been made that one can also make sure that the maximum height of the building is maintained within the framework conditions of the development plan.

The following two sections contradict each other for an outsider:

Our development plan includes a ground floor floor height. Unfortunately, this is below street level. Therefore, we planned to raise this height.

but:

The street is quite short and all houses next to ours are at street level. Only on our plot is this not the case. That would make only our house smaller than all the others. We also wouldn’t have to fill up.

- how can that be? Do you have to dig a hole to place your house deeper to comply with the development plan?

- does the development plan specify a height for each parcel in relation to the street, or absolutely in meters above sea level?

- is the total height measured from the top edge of the street, or from the top edge of the floor? I think the best would be if you take a photo of the text section of your development plan and a photo of the section of your and the neighboring parcels to get an impression.

PS. Probably everyone would react like this if the neighbor wants to build higher than they actually are allowed. Assuming it is approved by the municipality: From the start, you are navigating into a lifelong neighborhood dispute that will eventually call the purpose of a few centimeters more house height into question.

Is a building permit possible despite these concerns?

Yes. Height restrictions in the development plan are not for neighbor protection but have "only" urban planning reasons. If the setback areas are observed, neighbors usually have no direct means of defense. They would have to prove errors by the permitting authority and explain in the lawsuit why exemptions were granted erroneously in terms of discretion.

However, whether the municipality grants exemptions if the neighbors have not signed is another matter. If you (or your architect) justify the deviations well, the municipality has to decide which litigation risk is greater.