It was clear that this coalition had to focus on the climate crisis – by 2040 Vienna should now become CO2-neutral, which is a significant acceleration compared to the previous goals of the Smart City framework strategy, and ambitious. The means for this are to be a climate protection law and a climate budget. (64ff.) However, much must be done and massive action must be taken to achieve this ambitious goal. The mayor’s statement: “We do not want to play road users off against each other, but to make mobility possible for all Viennese” does not necessarily indicate that there is a will to do so. It will not be possible to halve transport emissions (43% of total non-ETS emissions) in 10 years without serious restrictions on MIT. Expansion of renewables to 30% by 2030, strong PV expansion is planned, the planned concept for the conversion of existing buildings to CO2-free heating systems is extremely important, as is the decarbonisation of district heating. (67ff.) Based on the new targets, the Smart City framework strategy and the STEP will be revised. (138)
In terms of transport and traffic, new express trams are planned across the city limits, trams are to be expanded in the urban districts – but they have long been intended to do so. City bikes are to be moved to the outskirts and supplemented by City e-bikes, and car sharing is to be better organised through tendered business areas. After all, the reduction of car parking spaces in public areas is announced, but that was also the goal 5 years ago, and still every single project is a new fight for every single parking space. The announced bus concepts for the large districts undoubtedly make sense, but it would be even better to speed up the construction of trams. The planned S-Bahn ring is an important development. Bicycle transport in public transport should be simplified. The already existing transport concept for the inner city is to be revised and introduced only in 2022. The new model “Super-Grätzl”, based on the Superilles in Barcelona, is probably intended to become a kind of permanent ban on driving around schools, which will be used for greening and unsealing. A cycle path expansion programme costing 20 million euros per year is ambitious, and we can look forward with anticipation. A parking management law is planned for next year. (156ff.)
Climate protection must be complemented by climate change adaptation. It is planned to plant 4,500 urban trees a year (far too few, but urban trees are expensive) and a new park every 18 days (i.e. 20 per year, 100 over the period, which makes you wonder what kind of parks these could be). Sealing should be reduced, even small urban development projects should create significant green spaces with trees – this is undoubtedly necessary and sensible. “The sponge city principle will be applied wherever possible”. – this is very good and laudable, but vague: what exactly does “possible” mean here? The planned 20 million euros per year for climate change adaptation seems to be about twice as much as before, which is good, but there should come more. Interesting: By 2025, four important streets and squares are to be unsealed and greened, e.g. the Praterstern. Measures against heat islands, surface water, greening of facades, shade, etc. are topics that cannot be omitted from such a programme today. (72ff.)
In the housing sector, additional municipal housing is being announced, but only 1,500 over 5 years, significantly less than in the last period (4,000). In addition to new construction, the planned programme “Gemeindebau(t)” also includes the renovation and gentle redensification of municipal buildings – undoubtedly an important issue. Apparently, processes of renting out are to be further developed, whatever that may mean. The planned use of detectives against the non-use of council housing seems to me to be a bit violent, even if the problem does exist. An important and extremely useful project is the planned quality assurance for privately financed buildings by the Land Advisory Council (then a further developed Quality Advisory Council), which, after all, has so far only assessed subsidised housing. However, this should not be limited to housing – and the big question is how this will work, if there is no denial of funding as a means of pressure. More emphasis should be placed on climate-friendly construction in the developer competitions. And, quite interesting: a separate subsidy model for building groups is planned. (128ff.) The renovation offensive “Wir san Wien” and the “Hauskunft”, announced even before the elections, will be implemented, the block renovation will be given a new name, the aim is a “city of short distances”. The building code is to be amended on the basis of an enquiry in order to link climate protection, affordable housing and building cost reduction. (133ff.) It is striking that there are no quantitative targets for subsidized housing. At one point there is talk of slower growth in the city, which would allow for a more moderate density, which would undoubtedly be useful in a number of cases. And the current number of more than 10,000 dwellings per year should be reduced. (153) A reduction of subsidised housing in favour of expensive, freely financed housing would not make sense at all, however, and it is questionable how freely financed housing can be reduced. On the positive side, the intention is once again to use the “subsidised housing” plan category generally, with two-thirds of subsidised housing being earmarked for this category. (150)
In urban development, new approaches are to be developed in response to declining growth, the climate crisis and the demand for space for living and working: New urban districts are to be planned in a generally climate-friendly way, which will undoubtedly require major changes and further developments, both in the question of MIT and the expansion of public transport and in energy efficiency and energy production. A separate technical concept for social infrastructure and a reorientation of the infrastructure commission are planned. Planning processes are to be accelerated and interlinked, the new instrument of the district-based development concept is to be applied, and a catalogue of criteria for urban development contracts is to be drawn up. A strategy for sensible handling of single-family housing areas is to be developed to counter the current densification of these areas, which is often lacking in quality. Land development planning instruments are to be evaluated, and plan categories for mixed use are to be further developed. (150ff.) A central theme of urban space in the next few years will be the use of ground floors in existing and new buildings – these areas are quite challenged by digitisation and Corona. To this end, the promotion of shopping streets is to be reformed, promotion improved and focused on specific quarters. Quality ground floor zones in new construction and management of ground floor zones are also planned. (25f., 104) An important issue is the question of environmental impact assessments (EIA), a paradoxical matter because it is a federal law which (with regard to urban development) is applied almost exclusively in Vienna. There have been a number of problems in this respect in recent years, and now Vienna wants to focus more on Strategic Environmental Assessments instead of just EIAs. Furthermore, Vienna wants to push for a change in the law, but this is likely to be difficult... (80) The field of action of participation is to be expanded, especially online tools, in order to reach more people. Culture should include more participation, inclusion in participation should be strengthened, a participation strategy is indicated. (116f.) The competence centre for participation is to become a participation hub as a contact point for all departments, participatory climate budgets are to be introduced, the participatory urban development master plan may need evaluation. (154)
In the rapidly growing city of recent years, one subject has been lagging behind others, culture. For some years now, the city councillor responsible has been trying to change this. Now “anchor centres for local cultural provision” are to be expanded, i.e. new social spaces for art in the districts. In addition, a “production office for urban cultural work” is to be set up, which is to steer urban strategies and promote art to the city’s borders. The planned second locations of the Children’s Museum and the Jungle Children’s Theatre in densely populated districts would be an important signal. The aforementioned new use of existing architectural landmarks sounds like a Lex Richter School (95f.) In sport, in addition to extensive modernisation, new buildings are planned – an event hall for 3,000 people and three training halls, and sports facilities are also to be expanded. (197) The bath programme presented before the election is also mentioned. (55) New markets and market halls in urban development areas (85f.), market hall at the Naschmarkt with a “design competition”, whatever that is. (86) And it is also worth mentioning the “economic turbo” of 600 million euro for investment in education infrastructure, sports facilities, infrastructure and public transport up to 2023. (18)