-
Quartier Vauban, Freiburg, Germany
Introduction to the Quartier Vauban
The Quartier Vauban is a sustainable neighborhood of 5,000 residents in the southwestern German city of Freiburg in Breisgau – a historic college town of 225,000 residents. Planning for the neighborhood began in 1993 and development was largely completed in 2006. The 84-acre neighborhood is located on the southern border of the city, two miles from the historic OldTown. The Quartier Vauban represents the state of the art in environmental protection in terms of transportation, alternative energy production, and sustainable construction techniques. All of the houses within the neighborhood are engineered to adhere to low energy consumption standard and transportation revolves around the town’s tramway, as 40% of residents have agreed to not own cars and those who do own them, leave them at the edge of town.
History
After World War II, the Allied powers divided Germany into four quadrants. For over forty years, French Army soldiers were stationed at the Vauban barracks on the southern edge of Freiburg. In 1992, the last French troops left the Vauban barracks and ownership reverted to the federal government of Germany. The German government sold the 84-acre property to the City of Freiburg for 40 million DM (approximately 15 million US Dollars in the early 1990s). The City created a development corporation to plan the site, prepare infrastructure and market the project. Roland Veith, the project director for the City’s development corporation said that the French troop departure was like finding land the City didn't even know it had.[1] Since Freiburg was experiencing a severe housing shortage at the time, it was determined that the property would be used to develop a new residential neighborhood.
The Planning Process
In 1993, an architecture student and a public transportation advocate met in a bar behind the university in Freiburg’s OldTown. In the bar, Matthias-Martin Lübke und André Heuss discussed the City’s recent acquisition of the Vauban property and shared their dreams for the development of a community built with ecologically-friendly construction and energy concepts, public participation in the planning phase and largely car-free living. On December 22, 1994, the two founded the “Forum Vauban” with five other people. After two months, the Forum Vauban had grown to 60 members who lobbied the City with their vision for a sustainable neighborhood.
In 1995, the City named Forum Vauban as the official body for an "Expanded Public Participation" (Erweiterte Burgerbeteiligung) process, which was to be used in the development of the Vauban district master plan. Under the expanded public participation model, the City worked closely with residents to ensure that community desires were represented in the project. Eighty residents participated in the Forum's first public meeting and five working groups were created. With key support from two city council members, a vision for the development of the Vauban district with the following goals:
- A transportation concept encouraging car-free living and placing restrictions on private automobile ownership,
- The design of a “neighborhood of short trips”, or high density,
- An ecologically-friendly district heating system with renewable energy sources,
- A mix of social classes, and
- Priority for private developers and co-ops over corporate investors.
The Forum Vauban became a model venue for soliciting innovative ecological and social concepts from the community and integrating them into the development of the Quartier Vauban. The German government nominated the Vauban as the nation’s contribution to the UN Habitat II housing conference in 1996 due to its cooperative planning process between the City and residents. The Forum Vauban and the expanded public participation model showed that development works best when community involvement is included from the planning phase to the implementation phase.
The final development plan was approved in July of 1997 and the City quickly completed the sale of properties to private builders and cooperatives. Construction began in April 1998.
Transportation Concept
One of the key concepts developed through the Forum Vauban was the creation of a car-free neighborhood. While cars are allowed in the Vauban, their use and ownership is restricted. Streets are shared spaces primarily designed for people, not cars. To date, 40 percent of households have chosen to live car-free.
Parking Requirements
One way to achieve the goal of a car-free neighborhood was to ban parking on private property. This meant that residents with cars would be required to park them in garages at the edge of the neighborhood and only allowed in to enter the neighborhood to drop off “grannies and groceries”. Today, on-street parking is only allowed on the main street of the Quartier Vauban.
In the 1990s, this goal seemed difficult to achieve because state zoning law in Baden-Württemberg required builders to provide a dedicated parking space for each residential unit. This law was intended to spare municipalities the expense of creating parking in public places - either on-street or in garages - for private automobile storage. After years of discussion between the Forum Vauban and lawmakers, the law was amended to permit Vauban residents to live car-free without the expense of building an unnecessary parking space. Under the new law, the City of Freiburg must waive the parking space requirement if the builder can prove that:
- The intended resident will not own a car, and
- There is dedicated land available to create a parking space if the resident chooses to purchase a car at a later date.
The Club for Car-free Living
The Club for Car-free Living (Verein fuer autofreies Wohnen, e.V.) was established to administer the requirements of the new parking law[2]. Residents who choose to live car-free must sign a declaration of car-free living and become a member of the Club. The Club is required to verify that each member abides by the contract and must construct or provide a parking space if a member later chooses to purchase a private automobile. Once a resident becomes a member of the Club and signs a commitment to the Car-free lifestyle, the City issues a building permit for the residential unit without a parking space.
The membership fee of 3,700 Euros is significantly cheaper than the cost of constructing a parking space, which is estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 Euros plus annual property taxes. The Club uses the membership fees to purchase a parcel of reserve land that could be converted to parking if club members eventually purchased private automobiles. However, as long as the land is not used for parking, it can be used for any purpose that the Club chooses, such as a sports field or community garden.
If a member of the Club decides to purchase a car, they are required to make a payment of 15,350 Euros (approximately $25,000) to the Club for the construction of a parking space. All members of the Club who eventually purchase an auto must also pay monthly rental fees and property taxes for the parking spaces constructed by the Club. If a member of the Club purchases a private automobile without notifying the City government, that member can be fined up to 100,000 Euros.
The results of the Vauban car-free experiment have been positive. While the car-free concept still presents obstacles to visitors and residents with cars, car-free residents are very happy with their experience so far. According to a study conducted in 2006:
- 81 percent of car-free residents say that the organization of their everyday lives without a car is easy or very easy.[3]
- 96 percent of car-free residents say they have not even thought about purchasing a car.[3]
Livable Streets Design Concepts
The Quartier Vauban contains many best practices in Livable Streets design. Traffic-calming concepts in the Vauban include shared space and extremely slow speed limits.
- 30 km/h Zone (D-Zone) – The main street through the Quartier Vauban has a speed limit of 30 km/h (20 mph), as does every residential street in Freiburg.
- Play Street (Spielstrasse) – Every street in the Quartier Vauban except for the main street is a Spielstrasse. The German Spielstrasse is derived from the Dutch Woonerf concept where streets are designed as a shared space for all users. In the Vauban, this means pavement widths of 3 to 5 meters (about 10 to 15 feet) with 1 meter-wide pervious and drivable curbs. These curbs allow for the occasional large vehicle to access the neighborhood and also provide for stormwater infiltration in line with the neighborhood’s sustainable drainage concepts.
- Bicycle Street (Fahrradstrasse) – Bicycle streets are one-way streets for cars and two-way streets for bicycles. This concept provides a variety of route options to make cycling more attractive.
- Pedestrian Paths – The Quartier Vauban contains many pedestrian-only paths linking residents to nature, retail districts and public transportation.
Today, 27.1 percent of Quartier Vauban residents say they walk more often than they did before they moved to the district.[3]
Bicycles
Because the Quartier Vauban was developed as a “neighborhood of short trips”, the bicycle plays a part in the everyday life of most residents. While it is illegal to build automobile parking on private property in the Vauban, many residents have constructed covered bike parking corrals. Bike paths and on-street bike lanes provide connections to the town center as well as the surrounding nature.
Today, 38.4 percent of Quartier Vauban residents say they use a bicycle more often than they did before they moved to the district.[3]
Public Transportation
The City of Freiburg has an outstanding public transportation system built around a light rail network known in Germany as a Stadtbahn. The City has adopted a policy of providing light rail connections to every large neighborhood development. A light rail connection was designed into the original plan for the Quartier Vauban and service commenced in 2006. The line runs down the main street of the Quartier Vauban with three stations. Running 8 to 10 times per hour during peak times, the light rail route provides access to the city center in 13 minutes and to the central train station in 18 minutes. Interchange opportunities are available with buses at two of the Quartier Vauban light rail stations.
Freiburg also has a growing regional commuter rail (S-Bahn) network providing half-hourly service to destinations as far as an hour away. There are plans to create a regional commuter rail stop at the western end of Vauban.
Today, 36.7 percent of Quartier Vauban residents say they take public transportation more often than they did before they moved to the district.[3]
Parking Garage
The neighborhood parking garage at the Quartier Vauban is environmentally-friendly. The “Solargarage” is outfitted with a solar photovoltaic array and contains the neighborhood grocery store on the ground level. Presently, the garage has enough parking for Vauban residents and retail customers. If car-free residents of the Vauban purchase automobiles, the Club for Car-free Living can purchase spaces in the garage for their use.
Today, 45.8 percent of Quartier Vauban residents say they drive less often often than they did before they moved to the district.[3]
ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK
REFERENCES
[1] Author's Interview (Kyle Gradinger) with Roland Veith, April 1999.
[2] http://www.forum-vauban.de/downloads/spezialwoea.pdf
[3] http://www.forum-vauban.de/verkehrskonzept.shtml
PICTURE REFERENCES
[1] http://www.vauban.de/karte/index.html
[2] Kyle Gradinger
[3] http://www.vauban.de/rundgang/fotos/09130049.jpg
[4] Kyle Gradinger
[5] Kyle Gradinger
FURTHER READING
