Planning

Berlin is a growing and changing city. Hence, important decisions about the future development of the city are constantly being made. The Senate is committed to broad participation of the urban community in this discussion. Accordingly, there are various forms of participation:

There is formal participation in general land-use planning and in detailed development planning. This is legally regulated in the Building Code (BauGB) and in corresponding regulations of Berlin for its implementation. In both cases, the public can participate twice. Citizens can comment on content and proposals.


Furthermore, there is informal participation, i.e. participation in urban development that is not regulated by law. Usually, very different participation procedures and methods are used for public debates, workshops or online participation. Such procedures often take place at a very early stage and before the described procedures of formal participation are applied, but they can also complement formal procedures.

Informal participation plays a role in feasibility studies for important single public buildings or long-term urban development projects as well as in urban regeneration (e.g., planning for the new central library, planning for new residential quarters, city forum, “Socially Integrative City” programme).


Guidelines for citizen participation in urban development were adopted in 2019, in order to place informal participation procedures on a binding and transparent basis for citizens, administration and politics. They set out nine principles for good participation and describe five measures for their implementation. They thereby provide a framework within which all stakeholders can agree on common and good solutions in a spirit of mutual trust and decisions are made transparent.

Guidelines for Citizen Participation

The "Guidelines for Citizens Participation in Urban Development" were developed in order to make informal participation more binding and transparent for all stakeholders. They were drawn up in a participatory process between 2017 and 2019. An implementation concept for the guidelines was developed in 2020 as clarification.

The guidelines contain nine principles for good participation:

1. Treat each other well
2. Strengthen participation
3. Define scope for decision-making and ensure openness of results
4. Inform and involve early
5. Involve many different persons and groups
6. Ensure information and transparency
7. Report results
8. Provide adequate funds
9. Continue to develop the guidelines

To implement the principles, five instruments have been developed to facilitate and promote citizens' participation in practical terms:

Contact points for participation provide citizens as well as political, civic and administrative authorities with information, advice, further training and assist with self-organisation regarding participation.

An advisory panel on participation accompanies the implementation of the guidelines and can also formulate recommendations regarding participation for ongoing projects. A participation concept should be worked up in advance for each participation process so that everyone knows what the participation is about, how it takes place, who can take part and how the results are incorporated into the project.

The online platform mein.berlin.de will be expanded into a list of projects, providing information on ongoing projects, with and without participation.
Participation can be initiated for projects on the list of projects for which the administration does not envisage participation.
Further information to download, including in other languages, can be found here.