The City Planning Office is leading the project to update the Integrated Development Concept for the City Center. The Hamburg-based planning firm Urbanista was commissioned to develop the plan.

The update process consisted of several phases. After an internal review—which involved examining Mainz’s relevant concepts for the downtown area and discussing changes since the 2015 IEK—the focus shifted outward to address societal challenges of recent years as well as current trends in other cities. Based on the results of these phases, a “target compass” with six target areas was ultimately developed for the concept.

By analyzing the strengths, challenges, and potential of the downtown area, eight focus areas were identified for the concept.

Based on these initial findings, measures were then developed that reflect the themes of the target areas and are largely distributed across the eight focus areas. Other measures are distributed outside the focus areas or are of a higher-level nature and thus not specifically located. For a few measures, a location could not yet be determined during the process. These are also part of the concept and can be located during further implementation.

Various stakeholders were involved multiple times throughout the process. In addition to internal coordination meetings between the planning office and the city planning department, workshops were held with various specialized departments of the City of Mainz, experts on the city center, and political representatives.

Citizens were initially given the opportunity to participate in the concept through an online dialogue. Throughout the entire process, it was particularly important that the public be able to actively participate in the development of measures. For this reason, a public event was held in the summer of 2025, during which citizens could share their specific ideas.

With input from all these different target groups and formats, a forward-looking concept for Mainz’s downtown area was developed.