South Hesse Regional Development Concept (REK)

AS+P has developed an informal planning tool in the form of the South Hesse Regional Development Concept (REK) that provides a flexible concept for future land development in South Hesse. It makes area-specific statements on residential, commercial and logistics locations relevant to the area with special consideration of the transdisciplinary aspect of mobility. Based on the existing and planned local rail transport infrastructure, AS+P defined key hubs both in the core and peripheral area, in which a more intensive search was conducted for areas with potential for residential development. Here, figures were recommended for minimum densities with good public transport links.

The aspect of large-scale logistics locations was analyzed and mapped for the first time on an extensive basis. AS+P defined suitability criteria for future locations on the back of numerous expert discussions with local authorities and logistics stakeholders. Along with aspects of a sustainable residential policy such as ports and CT terminals, these criteria were then incor­po­rated into the search for locations. The logistics land pool proposed by AS+P comprises an area of land that after expert examination at the regional planning level appears to be suitable for large-scale transport-intensive uses. In addition to this land pool, planning and procedural recommendations were also made for redrafting the regional plan in order to avoid conflicts of use, keep negative impacts as low as possible, and minimize follow-up costs for the municipalities. The findings of the REK serve as the basis for the formal process of redrafting the South Hesse Regional Plan.