In the next ten years, the Hessian state capital will have many major projects ahead of them, which will mainly involve the reorganization and upgrading of central squares in the city center. A prominent example is the Schlossplatz, where the craftsmen will move in spring 2024. Wiesbaden wants to invest almost 5.5 million euros there not only to beautify this urban business card, but also to make its use for events more comfortable.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis and for Wiesbaden.

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However, the rapid planning progress of such important projects is often hampered by the wrangling over responsibilities and the isolated view of individual offices and specialist departments. "Silo structures" in public administration, calls this Lord Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende (SPD). These must be overcome as well as conflicts of objectives must be resolved. For example, if the green space office has different ideas than the civil engineering office. Hurdles arise when offices with different ideas are assigned to different departments, because according to the municipal code, the department heads lead their departments on their own responsibility.

The Lord Mayor and the two Green Party members Andreas Kowol and Christiane Hinninger have developed a joint action plan and presented an overarching interdisciplinary working group "Public Space". In this working group, the mayor's urban planning office, the green space office of Hinninger and the civil engineering office of Kowol want to combine their respective expertise and responsibilities in order to make streets and squares more livable. If necessary, the expertise of the Environment Agency or the Lower Monument Protection Authority should be consulted.

The city faces major challenges

The Kochbrunnenplatz shows how necessary this close coordination is. A planning of the redesign "according to responsibility" quickly reaches its limits, it is said in unison from the town hall. The conclusion would be "piecemeal". Because on the square, individual areas fall under the responsibility of the civil engineering office, others under the responsibility of the green space office, and the Mattiaqua baths, which is subordinate to the mayor, must also be closely involved because of the cooking fountain and the healing springs. Therefore, the Kochbrunnenplatz is considered a pilot project of the new cooperation within the town hall.

Because a lot is wrong underground, says urban planner Sabine Ellerfeld. Of the underground thermal pipelines, there are only historical plans that need to be digitized in the reorganization. The partly dilapidated well chamber had to be rebuilt and the technology renovated. Because of the many pipes and canals under the square, it is difficult to find locations for new trees, which also have to cope with the ferrous spring water.

A playground is to be upgraded. The cold air flows must be taken into account as well as the protection against heavy rain. The ideas of the citizens should be taken into account and the interests of the residents, including the State Chancellery at Kranzplatz, should be heard.

"Forces must be pooled," demands the Lord Mayor in view of these challenges and formulates the goal: "Three departments, one strategy" as an expression of integrated urban development. This seems necessary insofar as further major projects are foreseeable, which for the first time have been sorted according to their urgency.

Increasing quality of life and stay

In addition to Kochbrunnenplatz, Kranzplatz and Schlossplatz, the short-term projects also include Ellenbogengasse, the surroundings of the new Ernst Museum and a green corridor in the composers' quarter. In the medium term, it is about the Platz der Deutschen Einheit, the Luisenplatz, the Christa-Möhring-Platz, the Dern'sche Gelände and the Paulinenhang.

Moritzstraße and Schwalbacher Straße were assigned to the "long-term" category. The head of the traffic department Kowol is concerned with eliminating or at least significantly mitigating the separating effect of Schwalbacher Straße between Westend and the city center.

The Green Party also has an extension of the pedestrian zone in mind and names Saalgasse, Mühlgasse, Wellritzstraße and Dreililienplatz. This will also require close cooperation, as will be tested in the foreseeable future on Kochbrunnenplatz. All with the aim of increasing the quality of life and stay in the city and answering emerging questions quickly and efficiently across disciplines.