Submit a residents' petition
You would like the municipal council of your place of residence to deal with a certain matter?
You can submit a residents' motion for matters within the scope of the municipality for which the municipal council is responsible (for example, the maintenance of a swimming pool, the construction of a kindergarten).
No Residentsapplication is possible for:
- general political questions or problems of federal or state politics
- Matters for which the mayor is responsible by law
- Questions concerning the internal organisation of the municipal administration
- the legal relationships of the municipal councillors, the mayor and the municipal employees
- the budget statutes including the business plans of the municipal enterprises as well as the approval of the annual financial statements
- Municipal taxes, tariffs and fees
- Urban land-use plans and local building regulations with the exception of the resolution initiating the procedure
- Decisions in appeal proceedings
- Matters for which a statutory participation or hearing procedure has already taken place
Responsible authority
the municipal/city administration of your place of residence
Note: They will also answer any questions you may have in connection with the residents' application.
Details
Prerequisite
- It must be clearly evident,
- what business you want the council to attend to and
- why you want it to do so.
- It must not be a matter on which a residents' motion has already been submitted within the last six months.
- In municipalities with up to 10,000 inhabitants, at least three per cent of all inhabitants of the municipality entitled to sign (but no more than 200 people) must support the residents' petition with their signature. In municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, at least 1.5 per cent of the inhabitants entitled to sign (but at least 200 and at most 2,500 persons) must support the residents' petition.
Anyone who is at least 16 years old at the time of signing and has lived in the municipality for at least three months is entitled to sign.
Procedure
You must submit the residents' application in writing.
Appoint up to three trusted third parties with name and address.
Thesetrusted third parties are the contact persons for the municipal or city administration and are entitled to make and receive binding declarations on the residents' application. If you do not nominate anyone, the first two signatories are deemed to be persons of trust.
The municipal council checks whether all requirements are met. If this is the case, the matter is dealt with in a meeting of the municipal council or the competent deciding committee.
At this meeting, the persons of trust are also heard.
Deadlines
You can submit a residents' motion at any time.
Exception: If the residents' application is directed against a decision of the municipal council, you must submit it within three months of the announcement of this decision.
Required documents
- Residents' application with objective and justification
- List or individual sheets with the signatures of the residents
Costs
none
Processing time
If all requirements are met, the matter is dealt with by the municipal council within three months of receipt of the resident's application.
Miscellaneous
none
Legal basis
Gemeindeordnung (GemO)
- § 20 b Einwohnerantrag
Kommunalwahlgesetz (KomWG)
- § 41 Antrag auf Einwohnerversammlung, Einwohnerantrag, Bürgerbegehren, Bürgerentscheid
Release note
machine generated, based on the German release by: Innenministerium Baden-Württemberg, 23.07.2025