ᐅ Built-up Area: Are garages or carports included in the built-up area?

Payday schrieb:
what exactly is a "terrace directly adjacent to the house"?

It’s what most homeowners build connected to their living room to enjoy the summer. If you can step out onto your terrace through a floor-to-ceiling door from your house, then the terrace is not considered an auxiliary structure according to §14 of the Land Use Ordinance, but rather part of the main building, i.e., the residential house. It must be fully counted within the floor area ratio-1 and, by the way, also fall within the building envelope. You could also place your terrace further back in the garden, for example as a barbecue area, provided the development plan does not prohibit this. In that case, it would not be connected to the house and would be considered a subordinate auxiliary structure counted under floor area ratio-2.

Payday schrieb:
and where is that stated

It is indirectly stated in §20 of the Land Use Ordinance:
(4) When calculating the floor area, auxiliary buildings within the meaning of §14, balconies, loggias, terraces, as well as structural elements, insofar as they are permitted or may be permitted under state law in the setback areas (side boundary distance and other setback areas), are disregarded.
Why would terraces be explicitly listed here if they always belonged to auxiliary structures? Admittedly, this still leaves room for interpretation and the wording could be further questioned. Therefore, there are relevant commentaries and court rulings on this topic, which the city of Frankfurt a.M. has nicely summarized and published on its website in a guidance document on floor area ratio and net floor area ratio.

sorry, but nowhere in the cited land-use ordinance does it state that terraces directly attached to the house are fully included in the calculation. otherwise, you simply leave a 1cm (0.4 inch) gap—as an expansion joint, which is necessary anyway—and then it’s no longer directly connected (otherwise, where would the boundary be?). it would only be considered connected if, for example, the terrace also rested on the house’s foundation slab (which probably never happens).

if a terrace is fully included, then a garage would also have to be fully included when attached to the house, and so on...

i’ve simplified the sentence from the land-use ordinance a bit for easier reading:

(4) In calculating the floor area, ancillary facilities within the meaning of § 14, balconies, loggias, terraces, and structural installations … are not taken into account.

the clause referring to state law is missing.

original:

(4) In calculating the floor area, ancillary facilities within the meaning of § 14, balconies, loggias, terraces, and structural installations, insofar as they are permitted or can be permitted under state law in the building setback areas (side boundary distance and other setback areas), are not taken into account.

Payday schrieb:
sorry but your quoted land-use ordinance nowhere states that terraces directly adjacent to the house are fully counted.

However, this is exactly the nature of laws and regulations—they are written as generally as possible and cannot address every individual case.

Payday schrieb:
where else would the limit be?

This is decided by the case officer who grants or denies the building permit / planning permission. If you disagree with the denial, you can discuss it with them and their supervisors, and if everyone maintains their interpretation of the legal text, a court has to make the final decision. From these court rulings, internal administrative or public guidelines are developed, which are then used in individual decisions—you can also challenge those in court.

Payday schrieb:
if a terrace is fully counted, then a garage would also have to be fully counted if it is attached to the house, and so on...

No, because what counts toward the floor area ratio is explicitly specified in §19 of the land-use ordinance.
(4) When determining the floor area, the floor areas of
1. garages and parking spaces including their access drives,
2. ancillary facilities as defined in §14,
3. structural installations below ground level that underbuild the plot, must be included. The allowable floor area may be exceeded by up to 50 percent by the floor areas of the installations listed in sentence 1, but not exceeding a floor area ratio of 0.8
Terraces are not explicitly mentioned here, unlike in §20. Therefore, it is an individual case decision whether a terrace is considered an ancillary facility. With your expansion joint, it certainly is not, but whether it must be 1 meter (0.4 feet) or 10 meters (33 feet) away from the house depends on the specific circumstances.

I have reread it. You are right; it could really be interpreted the way you say.
However, there is a simple solution: the terrace can simply be considered an access path to the garage, since access paths fall under §19. There is nowhere a precise definition of what exactly qualifies as an access path or parking area. After all, my car could also park on the terrace. Of course, there must be a direct way to park the car there from the street.
At least, there is no technical reason why a paved access path can be exceeded by 50%, but the terrace—if it is directly adjacent to the house (although this concept of “adjacent to the house” has still not been clarified)—with exactly the same stones cannot be. The “adjacent to the house” condition is not stated anywhere nor can it be inferred from any regulation. There is no terrace located far away from the house; at least, this is not explained anywhere in the building code.

Escroda schrieb:

Terraces are not explicitly mentioned here, unlike in §20.

Section 20 (4) deals with the floor area ratio, not the site coverage ratio ...

Otus11 schrieb:
In the mentioned section 20 (4), it is about the floor area ratio, not the site occupancy index ...

Correct, section 20 explicitly excludes terraces, whereas section 19 only exempts
1. Garages and parking spaces with their access routes,
2. Ancillary facilities within the meaning of section 14, and
3. Structural installations below ground level, which only support the building plot from underneath,
but not terraces.

Payday schrieb:
There is no terrace far away from the house

That depends on the definition of a terrace. From that perspective, there is all the more reason not to include the terrace in the site occupancy index-2, since it is not mentioned in section 19.