Successful public participation in the Westbahnhof master plan and surrounding area

Around 60 people took part in yesterday's public planning workshop in Jena's historic town hall on the further development of Jena's Westbahnhof and the area around the station. At the event, the planning office first presented the different variants of the concept for the area directly surrounding the station, Engelplatz and Westbahnhofstraße. The presentation can be viewed on the city's participation portal. Afterwards, the participants were able to discuss these three sub-areas - the area around Westbahnhof, Westbahnhofstraße and Engelplatz - with the planners and representatives of the city administration.

Christian Gerlitz, Mayor and Head of Department for Urban Development and the Environment, expressed his satisfaction afterwards. "The discussions were very constructive. Many good comments and ideas were received, not only at the event, but also in advance online via the city's participation platform. These are now being evaluated and will be incorporated into the further in-depth development of the master plan. It is a successful example of public participation," he emphasized.

The discussions showed, for example, that the possible extension of the platform was welcomed overall, as was the direct link between the public transport stop and the platforms. There were also comments on the routing and ideas for the design of Engelplatz. For example, it was discussed whether it could be car-free.

Public participation almost complete

In the run-up to the planning workshop, interested parties were able to enter their comments online on the city's participation platform. Almost 200 comments were submitted. With yesterday's event, public participation in the framework planning is almost complete. Only the surrounding businesses can still express their opinions until Friday, 23.02.2024.

Outlook

In the next step, the planning office will evaluate the comments collected and draw up the framework plan over the course of the year. The individual measures in the plans will also be considered separately in order to work out which intermediate steps can be implemented at which point in time and which points should also be addressed independently of the possible scenarios.

At the same time, there will be talks with representatives of Deutsche Bahn, among others, to discuss the urban concepts with them. Deutsche Bahn has already been involved in the preparation of the framework planning and the variants since last year.

Background

The city of Jena has been working with a planning office since 2023 to draw up a framework plan for the area around the station as well as Westbahnhofstraße and Schillerstraße, including Engelplatz, towards the city center. The background to this is that the Westbahnhof is becoming increasingly important as a gateway to the city, not least due to the large new Zeiss AG building with the associated new roads, the prospective change in bus routing and an increased number of passengers. The area should therefore become more attractive.

Flexible concept

A non-binding planning vision with a time horizon of 5 to 30 years is being developed in the framework planning. Different development options are presented depending on the availability of space and the willingness of third parties to participate. As a result, a flexible concept is to be created as a guideline for the development of the planning area, in which the following topics are bundled:

• Urban design (e.g. buildings and squares)
• reorganization of uses (e.g. commercial and railroad)
• traffic functions (e.g. pedestrian and cycle paths, bike+ride, public transport and car traffic)
• Creation of green and open spaces (e.g. green square with seating)