Gravel and rock gardens are now prohibited in Poing.
The community has stipulated this in a new statute.
Instead, the default is: lots of green.
Poing - Anyone who has a garden in Poing is not allowed to turn it into a gravel or rock garden.
This is stipulated in the new open space design statute, which the building and environmental committee of the municipal council has now unanimously decided.
The statutes have been in force since Monday, May 3rd.
"The aim of the statutes is to ensure and promote adequate greening of the land and the prevention of graveled rock gardens," says the town hall's statement that was discussed at the meeting.
Building committee Poing adopts statutes unanimously
The committee members did not discuss this for long and passed the unanimous decision. Only Marc Salih (FDP) had proposed and applied for an exception to be included in the statutes: five percent of the undeveloped area may be laid out as gravel / rockery. The committee rejected this proposal by a majority.
The statutes do not apply to existing stone / gravel gardens or areas.
From now on, however, no new areas of this type may be created - neither in existing gardens nor in those that are being created in the course of the new development areas in Poing-Nord and the redensification in Poing-Süd.
Incidentally, the official expression in the articles of association is not “garden”, but “undeveloped area of the developed land and building land”.
The new rules apply to all types of property, both private, public and property developers.
Trend towards gravel / rock gardens should be stopped
The statutes stipulate that those undeveloped areas "are to be designed as green areas with priority given to the existing trees and shrubs". The term “green space” is defined as follows: “(...) an area that is planted or designed with natural plants, in particular lawns, meadows, ornamental or useful plants or woody plants”.
With the amendment to the Bavarian Building Code of February 1, 2021, municipalities can issue such a design statute. In its statement, the Poingen municipal administration writes: "Due to the increasing sealing of the undeveloped areas of the developed land and building plots, some with graveled rock gardens, the administration proposes to issue such a statute." And further: The townscape "is in our community traditionally characterized by varied garden use, local greenery, gentle lawn structures, natural areas, meadows, local flowering plants, wood structures as well as ornamental and kitchen gardens ”. In order to preserve this “green diversity”, as the town hall writes, the municipality has now issued the new open space design statute. Anyone who violates this threatens to be fined.
Erlangen and Peißenberg were the first municipalities to implement the amendment to the Bavarian building code.