ᐅ Terrace Planning for an End-Row House with a Large Garden – What to Consider?

There are practical reasons for this as well... on a fully paved lot, heavy rainwater hardly soaks into the ground, and in summer it heats up intensely, which negatively affects not only yourself but also neighbors and the environment.

To connect two terraces (which is a bit unnecessary since you only really use one), some landscape gardeners have recommended laying paving slabs about 65-70 cm (25-27 inches) apart (from center to center) as a pathway, with grass in between.
Alternatively, you could create a path using gravel grids.
Or grass pavers...

Anything but adding more paving, concrete, or sealing...

And for those who don’t want to maintain a large garden, there are options like automatic irrigation, robotic lawn mowers, etc.
Or simply accepting that a house with a garden may not have been the best choice over a condominium... fully paving or covering everything with gravel cannot be the solution.

MachsSelbst schrieb:

And for those who don’t want to maintain a large garden... there are ways to manage that

You can simply sow a low-maintenance grass on 20cm (8 inches) of gravel. It blooms beautifully, is environmentally friendly, and only needs mowing once a year. Why would anyone want a large plot of land and then cover it all with paving? That just makes the terrace extra hot in summer—what's the benefit of that?

ypg schrieb:

Neither.
Plan carefully and well, and use different materials than stoneware on areas where you are close to the permitted surface coverage. We have already advised you several times not to pave everywhere for various reasons.
Don’t provoke the building authority by inquiries – they might want to check everything and then criticize your fences.

I completely agree with you. One thing I admit is that I will build the terrace smaller than discussed here in the thread with the recommendations and also with alternative pathways that do not count toward the permitted area. The problem is that I already have a large (for me) plot. With 50m² (540 sq ft), I can’t add a pool, garden shed, or terrace because everything would be too small or not feasible; or, if you look very closely, we also have a strip in front of the property owner’s house that is 1m (3 feet) wide and runs along the house, paved, although it’s marked as green space in the plans.

I agree with everyone who is against too much paving. However, I must still say that, for example, we are the end house and share the street with the other 2 parties as a private road. There should be some compromises. One is understandable, as it is in a place where it causes no disturbance. The other, which we did not build and just noticed now, is basically a flowerbed in the middle of the driveway, making it difficult to turn around. You could hardly fall in because it’s narrow on both sides. It’s hard to explain. But this is on the shared area, so if there is an inspection, all of us will have a problem. Regarding this flowerbed, I would also go to court; it is outrageous that a flowerbed should be built there, as it would severely limit driveway access.

What I want to say is that building authorities also overdo it. The problem is that people often build more and larger anyway, but here we have the mentioned neighbor and also a very strict building authority.

I have already called and asked, and the woman said it would not be a problem to build, but I wanted a legally binding statement, and (after a long back and forth) I was advised to submit a building preliminery inquiry. Further down the street, neighbors have already reported that their construction companies paved too much on the shared area, like ours did. The building authority even came with drones, flew over the gardens, and complained. Now some neighbors have to green the garage roofs differently as compensation, and possibly part of a parking area has to be removed. (There are no public parking spaces in the village) but the main thing is to tear down.

I will reconsider the terrace as discussed here, explore alternatives, etc. But with just under 50m² (540 sq ft) for terrace, pathway, garden shed, and pool, the 50m² limit would quickly be exceeded...

Therefore, I am considering whether to obtain a permit and then possibly exceed the allowed area somewhat, maybe not as much as initially planned but a bit. Of course, I don’t want to stir up trouble, but those will be my neighbors who wake things up. They first let people build and later come back and demand removal. Ideally, I would like to have permission to build somewhat larger. In exchange, I would cover the garage roofs with greenery or plant two more trees as compensation. The neighbors would have to do the same because their plots are very small and inconvenient. I wonder why the same doesn’t apply to me.

Private road ... communal area ... is it possible that your "property" only refers to your "exclusive ownership area" within a condominium townhouse row (and the entire site represents the land plot in terms of the floor area ratio)?

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So, the property was divided into three plots for three houses. Due to the division, the neighbors have a small plot and with the house construction, they would already exceed the permissible area. There is an access road to all three houses. This access road is jointly owned by all three parties. It was only allowed to be paved with eco-friendly paving.

This access road/private road/shared area is billed separately, right?

For the terrace, I am only calculating with my own property and my own area.

P.S. We have no building encumbrance from others, and everyone received their own invoice for each plot of land.