City and "Offenbach offensiv" association take stock of the master plan

Head of Planning Paul-Gerhard Weiß reports: "Since the decision was taken five years ago, many other measures have been initiated. To name just a few figures: The city has adopted a guideline for cooperative residential land development between landowners, investors and the city. It has concluded thirteen urban development contracts with investors to ensure the quality of large-scale projects. It has drawn up three neighborhood and district concepts with comprehensive catalogs of measures for Bieber, Bürgel and Nordend in order to strengthen Offenbach as a residential location. Over 8,000 square meters have been acquired for the creation of new public green spaces and nine kilometers of bicycle lanes have been built, to name just a few highlights of what has been achieved."

Head of Planning Weiß continues: "It is particularly important to me that the city's social infrastructure is also keeping pace with the city's growth and has made significant progress: the school and daycare center in Offenbach Harbor have opened, the daycare center in Rumpenheim has been rebuilt, others have been renovated, the location for another high school has been found and the Bachschule has been realigned as IGS Lindenfeld." Progress is being made in many areas, but urban development is a lengthy process. "There is still plenty to do in the coming years, as the master plan still shows many goals and open measures up to 2030 - for example, the Bieber Waldhof-West development area, which we want to advance as a sustainable residential district with the high-quality concept that the urban development ideas competition held in 2019 revealed."

The master plan was commissioned jointly by the city and the "Offenbach offensiv" association in 2015. It was drawn up by the planning office Albert Speer und Partner. Offenbach's citizens and local stakeholders were closely involved in the development of the concept. And even after completion of the master plan, there is a regular exchange on its implementation. For example, the Masterplan Day takes place once a year - with the exception of 2020 due to the pandemic. Citizens are invited to find out about the master plan and its implementation, but also to participate and get involved. Over 600 guests have been welcomed to the event in recent years. The website with information on the master plan has been clicked on over 32,000 times. In addition, the Masterplan Advisory Board, a 16-member body made up of representatives from the city, local businesses, private investors and civil society players, meets twice a year.

"The regular monitoring of implementation by the Master Plan Day and the Master Plan Advisory Board is a special feature that does not exist in other cities. In this way, we can continue the dialog on the development of our city in the long term," says Lord Mayor Schwenke. Frank Achenbach, Managing Director of the Offenbach offensiv association, confirms: "The cooperation between the city and the association is alive and well. This is evident in the advisory board, but also in the joint projects resulting from the master plan. With the 'Offenbach Mitte' future concept, we have jointly developed a perspective for the city center. The 'Designpark' project will contribute to making the Innovation Campus a special place of innovation and creativity for companies."

After five years of the master plan, the mood and perception of the city has changed, says Achenbach: "The prospects for the location have become more positive and the image of the city is changing. Offenbach is described as cool and edgy, creative and unconventional. When we started working on the project in 2015, this was hardly foreseeable. There are still many challenges ahead, but overall we can say that the master plan is a successful project."

What's next for the master plan? "In the near future, the focus will be on implementing the future concept for the city center, developing the design park, the innovation campus and repositioning Kaiserlei in the business sector," says Schwenke: "The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating changes here, to which we are responding flexibly. With the Offenbach economic stimulus package and the creation of the Feste program, we have built a bridge to be able to tackle the longer-term projects for the forward-looking orientation of Offenbach's city center." Schwenke and Weiß conclude by emphasizing: "The master plan will also provide us with orientation and motivation in the coming years to continue to develop Offenbach positively as a residential and business location."