Lower Austria sets 1,700 settlement limits to curb sprawl

Lower Austria has completed a cross-regional planning process that sets about 1,700 settlement boundaries and aims to protect roughly 500,000 hectares from construction, ORF reported Monday.

The protected priority areas are intended to safeguard food production, valuable natural spaces and communities from flooding. The boundaries will act as clear lines beyond which land cannot be designated for development or built on, Deputy Governor Stephan Pernkopf said.

Settlement boundaries were tightened around Vienna and in urban areas where development pressure is high and municipal borders are close together, said planning expert Thomas Knoll. Fewer changes were needed in places with less pressure, including parts of the Waldviertel.

The plan also identifies landscape areas worth preserving, agricultural priority zones and riverbank areas to be kept free from construction. Arthur Kanonier, who heads the land policy and management research group at TU Wien, said the long-term protections would also give municipalities greater legal certainty.

The regional planning process began five years ago and brought the whole state, covering 19,186 square kilometres and 573 municipalities, into a shared planning framework for the first time.