The Federal Building Code (Baugesetzbuch) allows, under certain conditions, that development plans are adopted by recourse to an accelerated procedure. This procedure involves far reaching advantages, not only in relation to time and cost. It implies that the administration may refrain from early public participation and from conducting an environmental audit. Furthermore, development plans adopted on the basis of the accelerated procedure may deviate from the guidelines included in the preparatory land-use plan. Finally, in the accelerated procedure, interventions in nature and landscape that are to be expected due to the preparation of the development plan are considered to have taken place or to have been permitted prior to the planning decision. However, the choice of the accelerated procedure is subject to strict legal requirements. In particular, § 13a para. 1 sentence 4 of the Baugesetzbuch stipulates for reasons of European and environmental law that a development plan is inadmissible under the accelerated procedure if it establishes the admissibility of a project that is subject to an obligation to carry out an environmental impact assessment. The question therefore arises as to whether there is any room in practice for the application of the accelerated procedure. This article is dedicated to this issue.