Land-use plan – in force
The Land-Use Plan (FNP) sets out the broad outlines of the intended land use for the entire urban area of Jena, covering the whole territory for a planning horizon of approximately 15 years, and is kept up to date through amendment procedures. It allocates the land requirements for the individual land uses with a certain degree of abstraction and presents these within a broad-brush structural framework.
However, the FNP does not create any building rights. This is evident from the fact that the intended uses are not shown for individual plots of land, but for larger development areas (no plot-specific detail). It is about the big picture and determining which uses should be located where and which should not. As a so-called preparatory urban development plan, the FNP serves to commit the local authority to a planning framework; however, it has no direct legal effect on citizens.
The Land Use Plan for the City of Jena, in its April 2026 version, came into legal effect upon public notification of its approval in the Official Gazette 43/2026 (PDF) on 29 October 2026.
The valid land-use plan consists of the following components:
- Map section on a scale of 1:12,500
- Explanatory memorandum
- Supplementary map ‘Adaptation to Climate Change’
- Environmental report with appendices
These can be found under ‘Downloads’ for inspection.
In accordance with Section 6a(1) of the BauGB, a summary statement (PDF) must be attached to the effective FNP. This explains how environmental concerns and feedback from public and official consultations have been taken into account, and why the city opted for the chosen plan after examining possible alternatives.
You can order plotted map sections or extracts from the FNP from the Geoinformation Team.
What is a land-use plan?
A summary of information on frequently asked questions can be found here: FAQ – Questions and answers about the FNP (PDF).
Update to the 2006 Land Use Plan
In accordance with Section 5 in conjunction with Section 1(3) of the Building Code (BauGB), the preparation and updating of the land-use plan are among the local authority’s mandatory tasks.
The City of Jena’s 2006 land-use plan was based on a planning horizon of approximately 10 to 15 years. Since it came into force on 9 March 2006, the actual, legal and planning conditions had changed significantly, and Jena has continued to develop.
The City Council formally initiated the update of the Land-Use Plan on 15 November 2017. The aim of the update was to coordinate the various land-use requirements within the urban area in a forward-looking and balanced manner. The key guiding principles here were, in particular, securing Jena’s position as a sustainable economic and scientific hub, needs-based development of sites for housing, work and public services, the maintenance of a high quality of life, and the protection of natural resources. Given Jena’s topography, its numerous protected areas and the significant competition for land use, a prudent and strategic approach to the available land is of particular importance.
The drafting of the new Land Use Plan was preceded by various city-wide planning initiatives, which formed the basis for the present Land Use Plan. In addition to the city’s Integrated Urban Development Concept, the update was based on the city’s various sector-specific development plans (such as those relating to housing, workplaces, gardens or the urban climate). These have been updated in recent years on the basis of population and household forecasts and, in the majority of cases, have been endorsed by city council resolutions.
Here you can find an overview of the key statutory procedural steps and the stages of the update that have been completed (PDF) .
The public first had the opportunity to participate in 2023; the public consultation on the draft of the new Land Use Plan took place in 2025. The consultation periods for the Land Use Plan update have now ended.
The Jena City Council dealt with the comments received on the ‘draft’ and ‘preliminary draft’ of the Land Use Plan on 1 July 2026 by means of deliberation resolution 26/0862-BV. The relevant table is available here as Annex 1.
By means of the declaration resolution 26/0863-BV of 1 July 2026, the Jena City Council adopted the Land Use Plan (last updated 04/2026), thereby bringing the municipal planning procedure to a formal conclusion and creating the conditions for submitting the Land-Use Plan to the higher administrative authority for approval. The weighing-up decision and the adoption decision were published in the Official Gazette 27/26 (PDF) on 9 July 2026.
Procedure for amending the current land-use plan
Various developments and projects, and their impact on urban planning objectives, may give rise to new challenges for urban development, necessitating the ongoing adaptation of the land-use plan to planning requirements. For example, when drawing up or amending local development plans, provisions may be included that can only be partially derived from the land-use plan.
In accordance with the development requirement under Section 8 of the Building Code, local development plans must be derived from the land-use plan. If development intentions deviating from this are planned, an amendment to the land-use plan must be carried out in parallel with the local development plan procedure. In accordance with the BauGB, the procedural steps are analogous to those for drawing up a new land-use plan; the amendment requires approval.
>>> To date, no amendment procedures are in place.
Amendments to the current land-use plan
The land-use plan will subsequently be amended for information purposes to bring it into line with an inner-city development plan pursuant to Section 13a of the BauGB. This constitutes an editorial process – the provisions governing the drawing up of urban development plans do not apply here. The amendment shall take effect upon publication in the Official Gazette of the City of Jena as part of the detailed development plan procedure.
>>> No amendments have been made to date.