Dear fellow citizens,
As you may have heard, the Municipal Council decided on March 8th, 2022, to submit the future General Development Plan (PAG) for the Commune of KOPSTAL, which is the first step in a long process to approve and implement a new binding General Development Plan for KOPSTAL and BRIDEL.

You may have had the opportunity to review the PAG documents at the town hall or on the commune’s website, or even to attend the public information meetings on March 24th and 25th, 2022.

The procedure for drawing up a new General Development Plan is an extremely complex one, in which not only the urbanization /development perimeter, the urbanization zones, the land use coefficients and the density of dwellings per hectare are determined, but in which the environmental impact, described by a strategic environmental impact study (SUP), also plays an important role.

A PAG comes across as a very technical document, which is mainly based on formulas and is difficult to understand at first glance. Nevertheless, a PAG sets the course for the future development of the municipality, for its infrastructure and population figures. All this has an impact on life in the municipality and the quality of life of its inhabitants.
Therefore, the new PAG is an important document for the future of the commune and its citizens! It is worth taking a closer look at it.

Is the PAG, as proposed to the residents of both BRIDEL and KOPSTAL, a perfect document?

No, it is certainly not a perfect document, but the procedure that has just been launched by the Local Council on March 8th, 2022, is only a first step and will undoubtedly allow this plan to be refined and improved. This is what is needed!

The elected members of ÄR EQUIPE hesitated for a long time before giving their consent to the launching of this PAG procedure, for several different reasons.

Some of us, however, finally felt that the commune could not afford to further delay the start of the procedure for this PAG, considering that we are already among the last communes in the country, and therefore agreed to initiate the procedure, even though we do not agree with all the aspects and parameters of this PAG project.

As you may know, the procedure allows residents of the municipality to submit their complaints/comments within a period of 30 days for the PAG (i.e. by April 13th, 2022) and of 45 days in respect of the SUP (i.e. by April 28th, 2022).

 It is important to note that all those who wish to preserve their rights to be able to challenge this PAG on whatever grounds during the course of the proceedings must file such a complaint within this time limit, as those who fail to file a protest within the stipulated time limits will not be able to raise any claims with the state authorities, the Minister or even the courts at a later stage of the proceedings.

We certainly do not want to encourage citizens to complain for political reasons, but we can understand that some residents feel that the zoning decisions made, the land use coefficients or the density of development currently in the PAG are detrimental to them personally or that they feel that they are detrimental to the harmonious development of the community.

Those who have a personal and direct interest in complaining about such matters must do so within the prescribed time limits (30 days for the PAG and 45 days for the SUP).
No particular form is required for such a complaint, it should be sent to the Commune by registered mail or submitted to the Commune in person -against confirmation- in order to have a proof that it has been submitted.

The persons filing a complaint will then be heard by the College of Mayor and Aldermen.

It is hoped that the College of Mayor and Aldermen will try to adapt the provisions of the PAG, if possible, to avoid excessive inconvenience for certain citizens, or even to consider the constructive proposals of citizens.

The representatives of ÄR EQUIPE will support all complaints and proposals they consider legitimate and in the interest of a harmonious development of our community.

Indeed, there is still room for improvement, as the two examples will illustrate:

• The center of BRIDEL or some areas of this center had been planned differently by the College of Mayor and Aldermen, which included a mayor from our grouping:
  The planned development of the former “VALLELUNGA” site, which was very positively advised by the Ministry of the Interior in 2017, was finally not approved by the coalition which emerged from the last municipal election and launched other projects instead, their own projects….

Which does not mean that we consider the new planning to be completely inadequate, but we believe that significant adjustments must be made at this level.

• The large housing estate planned at “OP DER SCHANZ”, at the entrance to BRIDEL, is another key element of the future PAG, the development of which, we believe, must be carefully monitored and guided. We believe that the implementation and development can only take place in phases spread over many years, a development that must be conscientiously guided, accompanied and monitored by the Commune. This involves, first and foremost, finding intelligent traffic routing solutions to the already tense traffic situation and even more with regard to the additional traffic volume that this large housing project will undoubtedly bring with it.

The above few examples, of which there are many more, show that some of the elected members of ÄR EQUIPE, while voting in favor of the PAG procedure, do not necessarily share all the details of this very extensive and complex dossier which will have to be improved during the procedure, and for which a public dialogue is useful and necessary!

We believe that this PAG should be, as far as possible, the PAG of all the inhabitants of the municipality and that, consequently, the opinions of the inhabitants should be considered in its elaboration and implementation. The same has been promised by the College of Mayor and Aldermen in the public presentation. Let us take the mayor at his word!

The aim of the process currently underway must be to find the broadest possible consensus at all levels, even though this will undoubtedly be difficult.

We invite you to participate in this process!
We are convinced that joint efforts are worthwhile to achieve a good result!
Please contact us if you have any questions, suggestions or recommendations.

Maria SCHEPACH, Romain ADAM, Patrick THILL, Roger HAMEN