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Article 73 of the VwVfG reads as follows: ‘1. The project manager must submit the plan to the authority responsible for the investigation with a view to implementation of the investigative procedure. The plan shall comprise designs and explanations which show the project, the reasons for its conception and the land and installations affected by the project. 2. During the month following receipt of the comprehensive plan, the authority responsible for the investigation shall instruct the authority whose area of responsibilities is affected by the project to adopt a position and to ensure that the plan is submitted for consultation in the municipalities affected by the project. 3. The municipalities referred to in subparagraph 2 shall submit the plan for consultation in the course of the three weeks following receipt and for a period of one month. … 3a. The administrative authorities referred to in subparagraph 2 shall submit their observations within a period fixes by the authority responsible for the investigation, which shall not exceed three months. Observations submitted after expiry of the deadline referred to in the first sentence must be taken into account if the authority approving the plan is or should have been aware of the questions raised or if they are important to the legality of the decision. Otherwise, those observations may be taken into account. 4. Within two weeks of expiry of the deadline of the submission for consultation, any person whose interests are affected by the project may, in writing or by statement included in the record, raise objections to the plan before the municipality or authority responsible for the investigation. … Upon expiry of the deadline for raising objections, any objection not based on individual claims in private law shall be excluded. This shall be stated in the public notice of the submission for consultation or in the notification of the deadline for raising objections. Associations which, by virtue of recognition following from other legal provisions, are authorised to bring actions under the Verwaltungsgerichtsordnung (Rules of the Administrative Court) against the decision referred to in Paragraph 74 may submit observations within the deadline set out in the first sentence. … 5. The municipalities in which the plan must be submitted for consultation must give prior information concerning that submission in the manners customarily used locally. That public notice must state: (1) where and for how long the plan is lodged so that it may be consulted; (2) that any objections must be sent to the services designated in the public notice within the time-limit set for that purpose; (3) that the debate may take place even in the absence of one of the parties on the date fixed for that purpose; (4) that: … (a) the persons who have raised objections or the associations who have submitted observations may be informed of the date of the debate by a public notice, (b) service of the decision taken on the objections may be replaced by a public notice, … 6. After expiry of the time-limit for submitting objections, the authority responsible for the investigation shall discuss with the project manager, the administrative authorities, the persons concerned and those who have objected the objections received within the time-limit and the observations submitted within the time-limit by the associations referred to in the fifth sentence of subparagraph 4 to the plan and the statements of the positions of the administrative authorities with regard to the plan. The date of the debate shall be published by notice in the manners customarily used locally at least one week in advance. The administrative authorities, the project manager and the persons who have objected or submitted observations shall be informed of the date of the debate. If more than 50 notices, apart from those addressed to the administrative authorities and the project manager, are sent, they may be replaced by a public notice. The public notice shall be made, by derogation from the second sentence, by publication of the date of the debate in the official bulletin of the authority responsible for the investigation and, in addition, in the local daily newspapers distributed in the sector which the project is intended to affect. The notice in the official bulletin shall be authoritative as regards the time-limit provided for in the second sentence. … … 9. The authority responsible for the investigation shall define its position when the investigation procedure is completed and shall send it to the authority approving the plan, in so far as possible, within one month from the closure of the debate, together with the plan, the statements of position of the administrative authorities and the pending objections.’