Framework plan for city centre starts
Chemnitz residents can now take part in the dialogue
What will the city centre of tomorrow look like? The city administration wants to address this question together with the urban community in the "City Centre Framework Plan" process and develop a strategy concept by the end of 2024 that identifies key action modules for sustainable revitalisation and crisis-proof strengthening of the city centre.
City centres are the crystallisation point of public life. They traditionally combine and negotiate a variety of uses at the same time. These include cultural offerings, tourist highlights as well as diverse workplaces and residential neighbourhoods. The city centre of Chemnitz is also the "heart" of public life - for the city and the region. It creates a sense of identity, shapes the image, is a "calling card" and is therefore of immense value for the city as a whole.
Increased online retail, the pandemic-driven acceleration of this revolution, digitalisation, climate change with increasingly hot summers and demographic change are changing city centres. Chemnitz city centre is also facing these challenges. Brick-and-mortar retail is under threat, existing building structures and familiar mixes of uses are being called into question.
Framework plan to provide guidelines for development
Under the title "My Chemnitz - our centre. Making the centre the centre together", the transformation of Chemnitz city centre is highlighted as one of Chemnitz's key future tasks in the integrated urban development concept "INSEK Chemnitz 2035". The update of the INSEK is currently in its final phase.
Based on the objectives of the INSEK, a guideline for the development of Chemnitz city centre is being developed with the framework plan. In a first step, various future scenarios will be developed by spring 2024, which, after discussion and evaluation, will result in a mission statement for the city centre. Based on this, specific projects and urban development measures will be derived for implementation by the end of 2024. Once the framework plan has been finalised and approved by the city council, probably in the second quarter of 2025, the concept will serve as a guide for the coming years.
The creation of the framework plan will be coordinated by the urban planning office together with the business division and developed in a dialogue-oriented process with the specialist departments of the administration, the urban community and key players such as owners, cultural professionals, tradespeople and stakeholders. Various communication and working formats are planned for this purpose. The (interim) results are to be presented and discussed in various workshops.
The first participation formats are planned for the beginning of December. In a public kick-off event, the upcoming planning process will be explained and interested citizens will be given the opportunity to contribute their own perceptions and experiences.
Call for participation in the city centre dialogue
Citizens of Chemnitz can and should take part in the city centre dialogue and express their concrete ideas for upgrading our city centre or tell us how they imagine the city centre in 2035. Submissions will be accepted by the City Planning Office at the email address innenstadtdialog@stadt-chemnitz.de until 10 November 2023.
The dates for the other participation formats will be announced shortly.