PLANNING INDICATIONS
7.3.2 The acoustically sensible structuring of commercial areas and sound allocation

Commercial and industrial areas shall be planned in a way that the compatibility with adjacent, noise-sensitive areas as required in § 50 of the Federal Immission Control Act is guaranteed by applying § 1 para. 4 of the Federal Land Utilization Ordinance, which lays down the possibilities to structure building areas. The "zoning" mentioned in § 50 does not only refer to noise protection clearances but also to measures influencing the locational relation between emitting and affected use in a positive way. In this context, the designation possibilities of § 9 para. 1 no. 24 of the Federal Building Code become important. Also important is the shielding effect of high and seamless development on the margins of building areas.

DIN 45691 on "Noise allotment" was introduced in December 2006 and the permissibility of its application has since been confirmed by legal practice. It has removed the insufficiencies of previous designations on immission-oriented and area-related sound power levels (IFSP). The designation of noise emission allotments (LEK) therein allows for a planning solution of the conflict between noise emissions and adjacent uses requiring protection. Its application shall define the relation between the right to noise emissions and a specified area within the planning area. The norm contains a simple and unambiguous calculation method for the identification of immissions at relevant points, which is implicitly determined through the designation of emission allotments.

The structuring of commercial areas should be based on the principles of optimum noise protection clearances to noise-intensive installations, on the existing measures of shielding and on the principle of noise concentration. The essential principle of "noise to noise" leads to a preferably compact arrangement of noise-emitting uses, which can be shielded with less effort than scattered and dispersed operating plants. (But this is exactly what is often required from the structural and urban climatic point of view (aeration)).