The current landscape plan for the city of Mainz recommended designating the Layenhof biotope areas as a nature reserve. The lower nature conservation authorities of the Mainz-Bingen district and the city of Mainz supported the higher nature conservation authority responsible for implementation.

Extensive preliminary consultations were held with the municipalities concerned, the ministry, the higher nature conservation authority, the forestry administration, and the Layenhof/Münchwald special-purpose association, which is responsible for the Layenhof meadows, as well as with the agricultural and aviation associations.
As a result, a consensus was reached on the boundaries of the 533-hectare area, the objectives of the protection status, and the most important contents of the legal ordinance. The area has been legally designated since February 6, 2017.

The protected area consists of two sub-areas: the Ober-Olmer Forest, whose importance is already demonstrated by its designation as an FFH area, and the meadows on the Layenhof with large areas of open and semi-open land. There are a number of interrelationships between the two sub-areas. The open land areas are a rare and well-developed, largely unbroken grassland complex of exceptional size (the largest on the Rhine-Hessian plateau) with a high development value for a diverse and rare flora and fauna and of particular importance for species and biotope protection.