Each new residential building in Munich has to have 20 square metres of outside space. This is space is getting harder to find as the city develops. Up until now only the rich could afford a green terrace on the rooftops of their buildings, but this is about to change soon, if plans of Munich’s “green planner” head of city landscaping Susanne Hutter get accepted.

The obligatory open space should now more and more be made available on the flat rooftops of new buildings. These terraces should be accessible to all residents of a building. The city plans to push the plan forward from this year on and Hutter plans real gardens on the top of buildings, with trees for shade, grass and bushes. She even plans to make areas available for residents to plant vegetables. The garden roof terraces are already part of the development plan for the 1,000 apartments of the “Am Südpark” project.

The City can’t force builders to include the rooftop gardens into their building plans, but Hutter has set out to convince people and funding is also going to be available. Hutter’s goal is a garden “If possible, on every new flat roof,” Bild.de reports.