Successfully revitalised: City council cancels formal redevelopment area Augustusburger Straße/Clausstraße

At its meeting yesterday, the city council - as the first of four - cancelled the redevelopment area on Augustusburger Straße/Clausstraße, which was formally established in February 1994. To this end, the committee confirmed the "Statutes of the City of Chemnitz on the cancellation of the statutes of the City of Chemnitz on the formal definition of the redevelopment area "Chemnitz - Augustusburger Straße/Clausstraße". It comes into force with its publication in the Chemnitz official gazette.

At the same time, the authorisation requirements for legal transactions and projects within the meaning of Section 144 BauGB, such as property sales and construction measures, will no longer apply. The possibility of tax depreciation in accordance with § 7h EStG also ceases to apply. When the cancellation of the statutes comes into force, the obligation to pay the equalisation contributions in accordance with Section 154 BauGB arises, unless these have already been paid by the owners in advance. The outstanding equalisation amounts will be requested from the owners within the next four years on the basis of an expert opinion. *

However, parts of former redevelopment areas are still part of the action areas in the "Urban Redevelopment Area East Chemnitz" development area. The focus of funding is now on upgrading selected areas, particularly in public spaces, as well as removing derelict areas and securing old buildings worthy of preservation.

The redevelopment area that has now been cancelled, which covered parts of Sonnenberg and Gablenz, covers an area of around 43 hectares and includes 24 redevelopment areas between Schüffnerstrasse, Casparistrasse, Kaulbachstrasse and Reineckerstrasse as far as Augustusburger Strasse, Albrechtstrasse and Münchner Strasse.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the city gave this area high priority in its urban development programme and declared it one of the focal points of urban renewal.

The aim of municipal urban development in this context was not only to preserve residential buildings and improve the quality of living. The city also redesigned open spaces, took measures to calm traffic and created sufficient car parking spaces in the residential neighbourhoods.Where necessary, new buildings were carefully added to the existing residential blocks, inner courtyards were gutted and the surrounding road network was improved, allowing the city to revitalise the Augustusburger Straße/Clausstraße redevelopment area step by step.

The municipal instruments for urban renewal have had a very lasting effect here over the past 22 years: a total of 300 individual measures were subsidised with 9.7 million euros from urban development funding. With such targeted funding, it has been possible to modernise sections of the residential development on Fichtestrasse and Kantstrasse, but also to open up attractive prospects for commercial enterprises. One example of this is the relocation of Cefeg Federnwerke to a modern production site with modern infrastructure and motorway access in the industrial estate on Neefestraße. The company, which started production at Augustusburger Strasse 165 in 1993 with 25 employees, was able to expand by constructing a modern factory building on Winklhoferstrasse with a production area of 8,000 square metres.

This relocation also made it possible to upgrade the area around the former factory site as a residential area. The city also achieved a positive effect with the conversion of the former Weltecho cinema into the youth centre "Die Arche".

The city also used subsidies to support numerous renovations of Wilhelminian-style residential buildings in the now defunct formal redevelopment area. This made it possible to preserve the character of the residential blocks and at the same time give the neighbourhood a new look. The urban development plans and targeted measures in the redevelopment areas can thus also have an impact in the future.

Property owners in this redevelopment area who have benefited from subsidies have already voluntarily paid 790,000 euros in compensation. This money has already flowed back into the area.

In 1992, the Chemnitz city parliament formally established four redevelopment areas - Augustusburger Straße/Clausstraße, Kaßberg, Schloßchemnitz and Sonnenberg - with a resolution on their statutes. In 1997, the resolution for the Brühl Nord redevelopment area became legally effective as the last redevelopment area in the comprehensive process. The Kaßberg, Brühl-Nord and Schloßchemnitz areas are also to be cancelled this year by resolution of the city council. Only the Sonnenberg redevelopment area will be continued until around 2020, as considerable redevelopment measures are still planned here.

* Information on the cancellation of the formal redevelopment area Augustusburger Straße/ Clausstraße as well as on the resulting elimination of approval requirements and the elimination of the tax write-off option, among other things, can be obtained from the Urban Renewal Department in the City Planning Office. Contact: Bob Polzer: 488 6032 and Gisela Franke: 488 6048.