What is to be created on the large site between Penzberg train station and Aldi-Markt, on which there is a parking lot with around 220 spaces?
The city council now wants to take up this question again.
A futurologist from Vienna even came to Penzberg for inspiration.
Penzberg - the area southwest of the train station measures 7655 square meters - a little more than the size of a soccer field.
It is owned by the city and extends from the tracks to the Aldi market.
In terms of area, it represents the greatest potential for concrete project development, according to the city.
Future uses are to be combined with the preservation of the approx. 220 parking spaces (for example through a multi-storey car park).
The city planners see the site as part of the city center, even if both are separated by the train tracks.
The future of the area near the train station should not be included in the election campaign
The area was last discussed in 2018.
However, the city council postponed the further debate until after the local elections.
Now the topic is back on the agenda.
The town hall invited the Viennese futurologist Andreas Reiter and Christian Hörmann from the company CIMA, which has been advising Penzberg on urban planning and retail development for years, to form an opinion in the city council.
Futurologist: This is what a liveable city of the future will look like
Reiter said his main focus was on what the city of the future will look like. He named several trends that would also apply to cities the size of Penzberg: digitization towards the “smart city” and decarbonization, i.e. a “green reconstruction”. In addition, there is a structural change in retail "with a huge shift to online retail". A fourth trend, according to Reiter, affects the offices through more work from home (“multi-local working”). Livable cities of the future are smart, green and oriented towards the common good and have places for social encounters, he said.
Reiter sees “great future opportunities” for Penzberg.
Digitization increases the attractiveness of small towns in the vicinity of the metropolises.
They would be “spaces of longing” and “a renaissance of rural areas” was to be expected.
But it is necessary to keep the young people between 18 and 35 years of age.
Currently 45.1 percent of the population in Penzberg are 50 years and older.
Regarding the city center, he said that “spaces for collective experience” are important.
“A city center is dead if it is based solely on purchasing logic.” Concepts are needed that encompass retail, manufacturing, leisure, culture, smart production and living.
“Inner cities have to be like a good party,” he quoted the Danish city planner Jan Gehl as saying.
You stay longer than planned.
CIMA advisor: The city must first be clear about its use
Christian Hörmann from CIMA said about the area west of the train station that the city council must first think about its use as a “supplementary component for the rest of the city center” and about the structure, i.e. the density and height of the buildings.
An investor is then selected on this basis.
The city council described the lectures as "inspiring".
You would break up "old thought patterns", said Nick Lisson (CSU).
Regina Bartusch (SPD) also spoke of a "Herculean task".
Katharina von Platen (Greens) and Anette Völker-Rasor (PM) recommended that the station building should also be “taken into account”.
Kerstin Engel (Greens) called for the bus station to be included as well.
Mayor Stefan Korpan (CSU) also brought a citizen survey about the use into play.
The crux of the matter: tracks form the dividing line to the city center
A question from Jack Eberl (FLP) aimed at the tracks that separate the area from the city center: "How can you overcome this hurdle in order to create more connections?" In Wolfratshausen, where the S-Bahn is to be extended , one would answer that this can only be done through a tunnel, joked Hörmann. But it would be the largest and most expensive solution. In fact, the question is difficult to answer, he admitted. A place has to be created that people enjoy going to. Futurologist Reiter gave the example of a small town in Hesse, where the city library was built on a bridge as a connecting element.
It should be more specific in the next few months. In 2018 one was already further. At that time there was discussion about parking garages and markets, about a new pedestrian crossing, a bridge, an underpass with an elevator and a second platform west of the tracks.