Amalgamation
Under merger (coll. Kommassierung ) means in Austria those planned and under the direction and arrangement of the agricultural authority taking place Flurneuordnung whose analogous correspondence is in Germany as a land consolidation called: A change in the corridor design and graduated every with the aim to adapt them to modern agricultural needs .
The population in Austria (still) knows this process largely under the term “commassing”, although the word no longer appears in the relevant laws.
In Switzerland, the term melioration is often used for this .
General
The merger takes place in a complicated and time-consuming process. The reason for this: The newly designed (better and larger shaped and now adequately developed) areas must correspond as closely as possible to the previous owners, especially with regard to the income value.
The merging procedure (hereinafter referred to as “Z procedure”) is structured in stages: One procedural stage follows the other; earlier - legally finalized - sections can no longer be rolled up later.
Legal basis
Since January 1, 2020, the amalgamation is no longer regulated at the federal level and both basic and implementing legislation and enforcement are a matter of the state alone.
The Austrian federal states (with the exception of Vienna due to the lack of need for amalgamation) have passed the following land constitution laws (as of January 14, 2020):
- Burgenland : Landesgesetzblatt (LGBl.) No. 40/1970, in the version (as amended) LGBl. No. 63/2018
- Carinthia : LGBl. No. 64/1979, as amended by LGBl. No. 60/2015
- Lower Austria : LGBl. 6650, as amended by LGBl. 23/2018
- Upper Austria : LGBl. No. 73/1979, as amended by LGBl. No. 40/2018
- Salzburg : LGBl. No. 1/1973, as amended by LGBl. No. 80/2014
- Styria : LGBl. No. 82/1982, as amended by LGBl. No. 139/2013
- Tyrol : LGBl. No. 74/1996, as amended by LGBl. No. 138/2019
- Vorarlberg : LGBl. No. 2/1979, as amended by LGBl. No. 78/2017
Procedure
Step construction
- Preliminary surveys
- Initiation of the procedure
- Determination of the basics
- Reallocation
- Preliminary takeover
- Issue of the consolidation plan
- Processing the results
- Completion of the procedure
Preliminary surveys
Before a Z-procedure is started, in which considerable public funds flow - both in the form of the administrative structure provided and free of charge for the landowners as well as in the form of other subsidies - it must be clear that on the one hand it is necessary to pool them , and that on the other hand the procedure is desired by the resident landowners. The first question is usually assessed by an expert, the second is clarified in the form of requests or consents from the owner. However, from a purely legal point of view, the application or consent of the landowner is not a prerequisite for initiating proceedings.
Initiation of the procedure
The Z procedure is initiated by a regulation from the responsible agricultural authority. The procedural area is delineated therein. That can be done in the form of
- List of all properties or
- Description of the scope limits
Amalgamation
At the beginning of the procedure - also by ordinance of the responsible agricultural authority - the amalgamation community (“Z community”) is brought into being. It consists of the totality of all landowners in the process area and has the task of representing their interests vis-à-vis the agricultural authority, but also to bear the costs that arise in the process and to pass them on to its members.
The necessary decisions are made in the Z-Gemeinschaft's committee, which is elected by all landowners at the beginning of the procedure and which then elects a chairman from among its members.
The Z community does not have the right to participate in the redistribution of the corridor.
Determination of the basics
Acquis
This somewhat vague term should actually be “ownership status”, because the ownership structure of the properties in the area of the proceedings is determined. (Although the property should be clearly evident from the land register , it happens again and again that, for reasons that can no longer be clarified, entries in the land register have been overlooked or omitted in the event of a change of ownership.) The property status is derived from the land register, the land area from the cadastre or also determined by remeasuring the individual properties; both are checked together with the landowner and corrected if necessary.
The results of the acquis are set out by the agricultural authority in the "acquis" decision .
rating
The yield value of all soils in the process area is estimated - mostly with the help of local helpers - so that new areas of equal value can be allocated in the further course of the process.
The results of the evaluation are specified by the agricultural authority in the “Evaluation Plan” decision.
Joint measures and facilities
Building on the landscape elements present in the area (such as hedges, embankments, ravines), a long-term functioning landscape budget should be achieved. Some of these landscape elements have to be supplemented by others and some have to be adapted to the new floor plan.
In addition, each new property must have at least one driveway. For the most part, new or widened and better developed paths are therefore necessary.
The soil erosion is to be prevented by retention basins or ditches.
The results of the planning in this context are specified in the “Plan of joint measures and facilities” decision.
measurement
In some federal states, the old properties are measured individually, in some only the external borders are measured, i.e. those against properties outside the procedure area.
This measurement, which is carried out using the most modern methods, practically always results in a difference to the area that results from the addition of the land areas according to the cadastre, because these areas were previously determined with less precise methods. If only the scope of the procedure area has been measured, the measurement difference is divided proportionally to the individual landowners - positive or negative, depending on the situation.
Reallocation
Once the basics have been determined, the hallway can be redistributed on this basis. There are extremely strict legal regulations for this, the exact description of which would go beyond the scope of this article.
Must be considered among other criteria
- the value sum
- the area-value ratio
- the same quality as possible
the old versus the new owner's property to be allocated.
Preliminary takeover
As soon as the reallocation has been established and the vested rights and valuation plan are legally binding , and if at least two thirds of the landowners agree (and other requirements are met), the agricultural authority may order that the new land be temporarily taken over. This arrangement is made with a notice from the agricultural authority and results in temporary ownership of the new land. The ownership is therefore only "provisional" because the final decision in the form of the consolidation plan is still pending. (With the amalgamation plan - or by way of appeal decisions - the ownership of the land can also be divided differently.)
Issue of the consolidation plan
When all relevant documents have been completed and, above all, all new properties have been measured and marketed, the agricultural authority issues the “consolidation plan” decision. That is the official decision about the new floor plan. This means that the new properties in their new form and location are finally assigned to the landowners (until then the property was only provisional).
The landowners can only appeal against this decision if they believe that they have not been legally compensated.
To the instance → Agricultural Authority .
If no appeals are made against the merger plan at all, or as soon as the submitted appeals are decided, the merger plan is final .
Processing the results
The agricultural authority must ensure that the results of the procedure are carried out in the land register and in the land register. It therefore sends its legally binding documents to the responsible land surveying office and the responsible land registry court. The results of the procedure are incorporated into the documents there.
Completion of the procedure
When the cadastre and land register have been corrected, the agricultural authority closes its Z procedure with an ordinance. The amalgamation is also dissolved with a regulation.
Legal specifics
Issuing of notices
All notices mentioned in the above description (with the exception of the one with which the provisional takeover is ordered) consist of lists, directories and, in some cases, plans. These notices are not sent to each party to the proceedings individually, but are made available for inspection at a central location (usually the municipal office). The parties are informed about when and where they can inspect these notices and when and how they can appeal against them. (→ Agricultural Procedure Act )
Border cadastre
The surveying office enters the survey results in the border cadastre. This means that the border line is guaranteed: Acquisition of neighboring land is excluded.
Problematic
Landscaping
The agricultural authorities have repeatedly been accused of using their procedures to "clear out" the landscape by removing hedges, trees and natural barriers to cultivation, creating an "agricultural desert".
This accusation is justified insofar as in the 1950s to the early 1970s, the main aim was to create machine-friendly plots of land as large as possible without paying particular attention to the landscape. However, this can be explained by the post-war concern about enough food. Back then, too, they worked to the best of their knowledge and belief. In some cases with different objectives.
When viewed critically, from the point of view of some, only a fraction of the structures that are particularly valuable in animal ecology can be preserved. Compensatory measures in the form of strips of weeds, hedge and tree planting not only change the character of the landscape, it is also doubtful whether they can actually take over the ecological functions of traditional structures in a reasonable time. Overall, numerous local features of the landscape are lost, leaving more or less uniform landscapes. This loss of landscape aesthetics of the amalgamation is connected with a sharp reduction in the number of management units and thus also the types of crops, the cutting and harvesting dates. So the entire structure of landscape elements and management gets out of balance. How this problem can be avoided in view of the recent developments in agriculture, however, currently seems to be unclear. Overall, there is a great lack of information across all levels up to politics. However, some mayors of larger towns have recognized that this could also endanger tourism in the long term and they are now also viewing the commissions with a critical eye.
Others claim that the accusation is no longer true today: apart from the legally regulated involvement of the environmental advocacy and nature conservation, the agricultural authorities are striving to keep the landscape as it is. That won't always work out entirely, but you try.
Vocations
The vast majority of the landowners affected are satisfied with the results of the Z procedure. Dissatisfied landowners must, however, note that legally concluded procedural sections cannot be reopened with appeals in later procedural sections. For example, if parties appeal against the consolidation plan because the provisions in the acquisitions statement are incorrect, this appeal will be rejected. It is therefore important to be particularly careful with notices in the context of “establishing the basics”.
literature
- Erich Jöbstl: Protective measures against soil erosion in the course of commassing. Diploma thesis, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna 1990.
- Ilse Kainz: The development of commassing in northeastern Lower Austria . Diploma thesis, University of Economics, Vienna 1979.
- Reinhard Kraus: Commissioning yesterday - today - tomorrow. Background and problems of agricultural processes with special consideration of Lower Austria . WWF Austria, Vienna 1997.
- Horst Müllner: Commassing. Procedure, rectification of defects, costs . Office of the Provincial Government of Lower Austria, Vienna 1990.
Footnotes
- ↑ Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry: 100 Years of Agricultural Operations in Austria 1883–1983. The first commissioning on the basis of the Reich Framework Laws was carried out under Mayor Porsch from 1889 to 1891 in Obersiebenbrunn in Marchfeld, Lower Austria (= special issue of the magazine Der Förderungsdienst. Specialist magazine for agriculture, nutrition and ecology , published by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, ISSN 0015-525X , Vol. 31 (1983)).
- ^ SAGW (Ed.): Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . ( hls-dhs-dss.ch ).
- ↑ Helmut Grosina (ed.): Kommassierung and landscape preservation. Results of the seminar on March 13, 1986 in Eisenstadt, organized by the Burgenland Living Space Working Group and the Institute for Spatial Planning and Agricultural Operations at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (= Burgenland Environment, Vol. 9). Office of the Burgenland Provincial Government, Environment Department, Eisenstadt 1986.
