No development plan / Building like in the neighborhood

Hello, everyone, since I have already received good help here, I am coming to this forum today with another concern. We plan to buy a house that needs an extension/renovation. However, there is no development plan. One has to build like the neighborhood. This means for us, we could only build a single-story extension at the back. However, this is not enough space for us; we need 2 floors. The responsible clerk of the city could not give us any information and the responsible district building supervisor is on vacation for the next 2 weeks! Does anyone of you have any idea if we have a chance to get this project approved? Or is the decision solely up to the district building supervisor? Greetings and thanks Malo

Hello Malo,

Does anyone of you have any idea if we have a chance to get this project approved? Or is the decision solely up to the district master builder?

I don’t really know what a "district master builder" is or means, but your chances tend towards zero if the building authority does not cooperate. If the surrounding development exclusively provides for single-story buildings, only the goodwill of the responsible officer in the building planning department helps. If this is absent, you’re last in line.

Rhenish regards

You have to know someone who knows someone, and then maybe, if you didn’t have anything with the mayor’s daughter, you can hope that maybe your application gets approved.

Just kidding... as a construction expert already said, if the building authority doesn’t cooperate, you don’t stand a chance. No one here in the forum can judge that. We don’t know what the extension would mean for your neighbors.

Hello construction expert and Der Da,
so *Kreisbaumeister* is probably colloquial ;) He is definitely the person who has the final say over the approval of building matters (the man from the building authority for the responsible district). In fact, I agree with your answers (even if I would wish it were different!) I consider our chances to be rather low. That’s why my husband and I looked at the plans last night to see what might still be possible. We came to the following conclusion (and I hope you can tell me something about this as well): A workshop about 17 meters long is attached directly to the house, built as a single-story structure. Is it allowed to convert this into living space?
Thanks and regards Malo

You also need the approval of your building authority for this... no one here can answer that.

A workshop measuring just under 17 meters in length is directly attached to the house in a single-story construction. Is it allowed to convert this into living space?

This would then be a change of use and requires approval.