The Gilching community has experienced great dynamism in recent years.
What Mayor Manfred Walter plans to do in the new year, he revealed to Starnberg Merkur.
Gilching
- the third largest municipality in the district now has 19,557 inhabitants, and the completion of the industrial estate is proceeding at a rapid pace.
And with the opening of the western bypass in November 2019, the prerequisites for the redesign of the town center have been created.
Mr. Walter, you were confidently confirmed in office in the local elections last March and are now the only SPD mayor in the district.
How do you do it?
I attribute it to the fact that I was born in Gilching and have lived here my whole life.
I am a member of many associations and have an incredibly large circle of friends.
That helped me with my choice in 2008 and has supported me ever since.
And I think the past 13 years, together with the local council and my team in the town hall, have not gone so badly.
The first corona lockdown came shortly after the election, and we are now in the second.
How do you look back on the past few months?
Corona overwhelmed us in the election campaign, so that the local election was almost a marginal aspect.
The spring phase was very exciting, but also very chaotic.
It was all new, there were no concepts, and we all felt uneasy about how we were going to get through it.
Now we were prepared and had plans in the drawer, for example with regard to the home office for the employees.
And for the citizens?
The citizens are getting tired of the Corona rules, but 90 percent still bear the current restrictions with great sovereignty and with great commitment.
I am very happy, for example, how the Gilching Social Service and the Seniors' Advisory Board are involved.
Because many older people who are alone are hardest hit by the lockdown.
But they are often not easy to identify.
The work of the volunteers is all the more valuable.
Otherwise some people would and would fall through the rust.
Let's get to politics.
The western bypass has been in operation since November 22, 2019.
What is your balance sheet?
Conflicted.
On the one hand, the western bypass brought massive relief for the western part of Landsberger Straße, Starnberger Weg and Weßlinger Straße.
On the Roman road, on the other hand, there is not yet relief to the extent that we would have liked.
In what way?
There are still too many cars driving towards Alling and Fürstenfeldbruck through Gilching.
The signage would have to start on the autobahn so that drivers can take the Oberpfaffenhofen exit and come to the western bypass.
The same applies to vehicles coming from Starnberg.
You should join the A 96 at the Gilching junction and exit again in Oberpfaffenhofen.
How or better when does the redesign of the Roman road begin?
We have decided on a mobility concept, hired a mobility planner and commissioned an office to do the planning.
But we currently also have to save where possible and can only invest where it is necessary.
For Römerstraße, this means that we will get good planning with public participation in 2021, but that we have not yet made any money available for implementation.
As you know, it is about the area from Landsberger Strasse to Rossmann.
That is the key area.
We have to make sure that there are fewer cars there.
What do you have in mind?
I have a clear opinion.
Cars and trucks must be able to drive through.
We cannot separate individual areas from it.
But in future they will have to submit.
Pedestrians and cyclists must have the handle in hand in this area.
That is the key to success.
Shared space is definitely the way to go.
Can the people of Gilching then look forward to a real center at some point?
On the one hand the new building with the Italian bar, on the other the new building of the Raiffeisenbank.
The only thing missing is that the marketplace becomes more attractive ...
There is a plan to build another building at the front corner of the market square.
That would also be good for the marketplace, which would then be captured and not leak like that.
But the local council decided that no building should go there.
And the topic is not on the agenda in 2021.
Corona will still haunt us too much for that.
In spring, however, the fountain will be ready and the water will bubble again.
The installation of the fresh water supply was a bigger effort than expected.
As a result, the marketplace also gains in quality of stay.
The traffic in Gilching is also an issue in other places than the Roman road.
For example, a solution is currently being discussed in front of the schools on Talhofstrasse.
What is your attitude towards this?
A lot has happened on this topic in the past few weeks.
Many citizens also called me about this, including residents south of the schools who drive to the western bypass via Talhofstrasse.
If the street were closed to them, they would have to drive again via Starnberger Weg and Weßlinger Straße, which we don't want.
So there is a lot to consider.
My opinion is: parent taxis have to get out of Talhofstrasse, buses have to go in.
Perhaps it would be good to have a schedule, for example that only buses are allowed for half an hour in the morning or at noon.
But that's hard to control.
I believe that this topic needs to be discussed openly again.
Are you also discussing the kinking right of way at the corner of Römerstein and Münchner Straße?
In 2020, the right of way at this point changed several times, and the police clearly criticized the community.
We will therefore meet again with the police and the district administration.
I still hope that we can get the right of way (from or in the direction of Geisenbrunn, editor's note) and that we can prove this with numbers.
I think we'll know more in the first quarter.
Gilching's dynamism over the past few years has been remarkable.
Now the growth in the number of residents has slowed, the industrial areas are nearing completion.
Will we soon experience Gilching without construction cranes?
Without any cranes?
No.
But there will be significantly fewer, that determines.
We will soon have completed everything that was planned for the past few decades.
And apart from balding, there are no more major projects planned.
The development of the bald head seems to have stalled.
We had publicly laid out the development plan for the first time and are still working through the comments and objections in order to be able to interpret it a second time.
That will probably be the case sometime in the first half of the year.
Then it comes to planning.
But there will certainly be no construction activity there for the next three to five years.
What is the schedule on the Zelenka site on Frühlingstrasse, on which 50 to 60 apartments, a children's house and a triple gymnasium are to be built?
... and a bouldering hall and a skater facility.
We are shortly before the first layout of the development plan and hope to get both layouts this year.
Then we would be ready for construction in 2022.
Where will still be built in 2021?
The shell of the new building for the Verband Wohnen on Rathausstrasse is in progress.
That is going very quickly.
The conversion of the Argelsried school building into an after-school care center will be completed at the start of the school year.
With the new daycare center on Herbststrasse as a replacement for the BRK kindergarten, on the other hand, it will still take a while.
But maybe we'll get the excavation done this year.
We will demolish the old youth center on Weßlinger Straße as soon as possible.
The construction of a new crèche there will not start in 2021.
We are currently looking for a planner.
And we are preparing the new location for the maypole in front of the St. Vitus church in Altdorf.
What challenges does the community still face?
I don't see any major new challenges.
It is a big task to restart the social life that has been brought to a standstill by Corona.
Whenever that is the case.
I hope that all clubs and groups will get through the time well by then.
Not that someone stops because the members stop coming.
I'm a little scared.
What are your feelings and expectations when looking at the year that has just started?
My hope is that with the corona vaccinations we will find our way back to a normal time.
That we will experience normality again in the summer of 2021, that we can meet and art and culture become possible.
This is the glue that holds our society together.