Cologne's new event rules: urban planning is stalling!

Cologne's new event rules: urban planning is stalling!

The new rules for events on the central city center of Cologne such as the cathedral are long in coming. While the city of Cologne announced in April 2024 that a citizens' council would work out the new guidelines after the summer break, there have been hardly any progress since then, such as ksta.de reported. The city council is expected to decide on the new provisions at the end of 2024 or early 2025. These delays raise questions about the use of public space, in particular on the stress for residents.

Mayor Henriette Reker aims to give the city more "space to breathe". One of the central concerns of the new mission statement is to draw up clear rules for which events are allowed in places such as Roncalliplatz. Daniel Kölle, the former head of the EVENTS station, explained that the mission statement should answer the question of which events the city of Cologne wishes. This means that compensation between the interests of the residents, the trade and the general public must be created.

Citizens' councils for more participation

Anyone who thought that the city administration relates to the citizens: Inside the planning, it will be surprised to hear that there has been a new citizens' council since last week. Among other things, this will deal with the topic "Mobile in the Livelihood". Solutions are to be found to reduce traffic in certain parts of the city, according to opinionfuer.koeln . The members of the citizens' council are selected by lot to map the most broad spectrum of the population and are then informed and advised on the issues discussed.

Citizens' councils have become a relevant instance in the political landscape of Germany in recent years. They offer a platform to happen to be a citizen: to give the opportunity to develop recommendations for action for political problems. These recommendations are then recorded in a final report and handed over to politics, as is also explained challenges in public space

Back in the city center: The city of Cologne has already developed a "procurement concept for events in central squares", which regulates the number of event days. There are currently 63 event days for the Heumarkt, which costs a total number of 107 days, including assembly and dismantling. It will be all the more important how the new rules reconcile the interests of the residents and the associated noise problems, because according to NRW leisure noise, only 18 days are defined as "rare events" where more noise is allowed.