Lochhofen's twin house dilemma

Because one half of the house is unintentionally 31 centimeters higher than the other, the building committee vetoed it.

With regret, however.

Sauerlach - Unusual situation in the building and environmental committee of the municipality of Sauerlach: The municipal councils have now rejected a building application for the construction of a new semi-detached house in the Lochhofen district - unanimously, but with great regret. Because the case that the committee had to grapple with is curious, and nobody wants to be in the skin of the applicant. He is currently in the process of building a new half of a semi-detached house. Actually no problem, one might think. In the good faith that the neighboring house had a wall height of 6.30 meters - as stated as the maximum in the development plan - the client wanted to raise his semi-detached house to this height. But during construction it turned out that the neighboring house only has a wall height of 5.99 meters. That was,As it says in the meeting draft of the municipal administration, only noticed by the property developer and plan-maker as the construction work progresses.

The problem: Pulling the wall of the new semi-detached house up to a height of 6.30 is not permitted.

Because the current development plan states that in the case of semi-detached houses, the roof pitch as well as the ridge and wall heights as well as the color design must be uniform.

If the wall height is reduced to 5.99 meters, the attic can actually no longer be used by the owner.

Local councilor Michael Hohenleitner (CSU) was convinced of this on site.

Nevertheless, like the administration, he pleaded not to agree to the exemption from the establishment of the development plan, which the client has now applied for.

"Otherwise we will lay an egg in the nest for the future," he said.

Mayor Barbara Bogner (UBV) also warned against consent, describing the case as "difficult under administrative law". From the point of view of the administration, exemptions from zoning plans can only be approved if they do not affect the main features of the planning. According to the administration, there is not a single semi-detached house in the development plan area and the surrounding area that is not built with the same profile. Therefore, in this case, the basics of the planning are very much affected, as the planning will of the municipality does not only want semi-detached houses to have the same profile at this point. Should the exemptions be allowed, a precedent would be set for similar projects in the area and the surrounding area.

Bogner recalled that so far every development plan in the community and also the local planning statute issued last year prescribes the same profile of semi-detached houses. Also, only recently, in another case, they insisted on the same profile. All committee members were able to follow this line of argument and voted against the requested exemption, albeit with a heavy heart. STEFAN WEINZIERL