Research field: Urban Transformations Towards Sustainability: A Law and Governance Perspective

Integrated, high-quality urban and district planning plays a key role in improving quality of life and protecting the climate. A city like Vienna, which as a smart city is committed to quality of life, resource conservation and innovation, and whose population – and with it the demand for housing, work and mobility – is growing, constantly faces major challenges in urban development. Urban development contracts are a flexible instrument for achieving the diverse goals of future-oriented urban planning. The possibility for cities to conclude such private-law agreements with landowners or project developers – in Vienna these are referred to as urban development contracts – is now enshrined in the laws of all federal states (Bundesländer). However, their use and practice varies considerably. In many cases, the possible applications of urban development contracts are fraught with legal uncertainty. This is due in no small part to the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the design of the Salzburg contract-based spatial planning system in 1999. A 2024 constitutional amendment seeks to resolve (some of) the issues that arise in the context of such contracts. The project is dedicated to investigating the existing constitutional problems and the framework conditions for the use of urban development contracts as revised by the constitutional amendment.

Project lead: Univ.-Doz. Dr. Stefan Mayr, LL.M.