The discussion about five wind turbines in the Ebersberger Forst is just gaining momentum, as Ebersberg city councilors bring another location up for discussion: the one where gravel is currently being extracted.
The pit is to be expanded.
Ebersberg
- no construction site without gravel.
This is especially true in the Ebersberg district, where there is a lot of construction going on.
Gravel is easy to turn into money.
That arouses desires.
The extraction of gravel is, however, associated with interventions in the natural balance.
That is why you have to look carefully at every new mining area.
That was also the case in the technical committee of the city of Ebersberg.
A new argument came into play: Former mining areas should therefore be considered as locations for future wind turbines - a double benefit?
Discussion about more space for gravel mining
There are many hurdles.
Wind turbines in the Ebersberger Forest are controversial among the population.
There are supporters, opponents, and those who revise their views and put their original concerns aside.
One of them is Ebersberg city councilor Elisabeth Platzer (SPD).
In this case, it was primarily about an expansion of the gravel mining areas south of the sheep pasture, adjacent to the state road 2086 from Ebersberg to Hohenlinden, but possibly much more.
The area is located within the reserved landscape area of the southeastern Ebersberger Forest, directly at a previous mining site - but outside of an area defined in the regional plan.
The mining company operating there wants to expand.
A zoning plan change is necessary for approval.
The city's technical committee has now approved the resumption of the relevant procedure - unanimously.
As part of the next steps, the Office for Agriculture, the Lower Nature Conservation and the Forest Authority will have their say.
"Wind turbines are a good idea."
City Councilor Elisabeth Platzer (SPD)
Resistance is to be expected from there, informed Christian Stöhr from the administration: "Forestry and nature conservation are very critical of this." In December two years ago, Platzer and the Ebersberg FW city councilor Toni Ried expressed considerable concerns about expanding the gravel extraction area concerns this point.
“The forest is being sacrificed here,” Platzer had warned.
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Want to expand: The operator of the gravel pit at the sheep pasture in the Ebersberger forest.
© Stefan Rossmann
However, at the TA session she said, “Wind turbines are a good idea.
If authorities have concerns, they have to be examined. ”One must then try to convince the authorities“ with arguments. ”Among other things, this concerns the fact that there is a weather radar that is sensitive to signal interference in the relevant vicinity of the potential wind turbines.
But that is no longer a knockout criterion, informed Mayor Ulrich Proske (independent) the members of the committee about his status quo, but a question of the "individual decision".
The councils believe that the wind atlas and the distance to settlements speak for the location
At the meeting, Gerd Otter (Pro Ebersberg) spoke of a "very sensitive area" that the new gravel quarrying affects.
Nevertheless, a noticeable consensus quickly developed in the course of the debate to examine whether the site was suitable for the construction of wind turbines in the event of a subsequent renaturation.
It was pointed out that, according to the Wind Atlas, the location is promising and that the shadows cast by the rotor blades only fall in the forest and not on parts of the settlement.
In the resolution to resume the procedure for a change in the zoning plan, it was unanimously adopted to examine the location for its later suitability for the construction of wind turbines.
Extension of the gravel pit: six hectares of trees in the area
But even without this aspect, resistance will have to be overcome in the process.
On the extension area, with a total area of six hectares, there are 60 to 80-year-old spruce and spruce-beech stands that have already experienced wind throws but have recovered.
Therefore, a forest clearance permit must be clarified.
The assessment of the intervention by the nature conservation authority can also be eagerly awaited.
The city, however, has an argument why the expanded gravel mining would be the lesser evil at this point.
With the designation of concentration areas, she herself wants to prevent the landscape from becoming “cratered”, as was expressly mentioned in the written factual presentation.
There was also to read: "The regional extraction of raw materials is also an important consideration in this process", it is systemically relevant.
Renatured gravel mining - an opportunity for species protection?
Nature conservationists have also recognized that the renaturation of dismantled gravel areas is associated with opportunities.
Species that otherwise have a hard time in our landscape nestle on these “ruderal areas”.
The blue-winged wasteland insect, for example, loves such areas.
In Ebersberg, Gsprait tried to create an artificial home for them with gravelly surfaces.
It's free in old gravel pits.
All news from the city and district of Ebersberg in the Ebersberger Zeitung. All district citizens should vote on the construction of five wind turbines in the Ebersberger Forest in spring.
