The Habach community's flood protection project, which is so important for local development, has stalled.
An area that was urgently needed for this was literally snatched from under the nose of the municipality - and apparently with full intent, as was heard at the latest municipal council meeting.
Habach
- The flood protection project that the small community de Habach wants to implement is worth millions - to protect the existing buildings in the village and its districts. But also in order to be able to develop new building areas such as on the Kirchwiese.
The entire measure consists of several individual projects. An essential part of the measure is again made up of two projects: On the one hand, the dam on the existing flood pond must be increased. A fish ladder is also to be created as part of this construction project. Second, a 30 meter long protective wall is to be built along the Heubach in the area of the former Raiffeisen building. The water management office and district office had already given their permits for this in spring (we reported). Now the setback: As Mayor Michael Strobl said at the latest municipal council meeting, someone in the municipality literally snatched away the space required to raise the dam and build the fish ladder. A local entrepreneur, Strobl specified when asked,I recently bought an area of around 1000 square meters from the original owner by swap. And that at a time when the municipality was only very close to buying the area from the owner.
It is obvious to Strobl that the new owner of the area, of which the municipality would need around 588 square meters for their project, is definitely pursuing intentions with this move.
According to Strobl, the entrepreneur has already signaled to the community that he expects "a certain amount of concession" in the event of a sale to the community - a behavior that is seen by the local council as outright blackmail.
"That can be really catastrophic then"
"The whole thing is very sad," said Strobl. He thinks it's “crazy” that someone wants to do business with the flood in the community and its residents. Because the flood situation is constantly coming to a head due to the increasing heavy rain events, said Strobl. If such a storm should occur over the village as recently in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, the village with its current flood protection would be "in any case huge" at risk. "That can be really catastrophic." The new owner could not even do anything with the area because the area was "completely inaccessible" to him. If the entrepreneur had acquired the area through purchase, the municipality would now have at least a right of first refusal. But since it was an exchange of space between two owners,if this right of first refusal did not exist.
Instead of raising the dam and building the wall at the same time as planned, the community now has to reschedule.
At the meeting, the councils therefore decided to first build the protective wall along the Heubach stream.
It should be built on community land.
The committee voted unanimously, among other things, to start the tender.
If the water management office has approved the so-called "early start of measures", the construction of the wall can start afterwards, Strobl said.
The okay from the Weilheim authority is important for possible funding.
The municipal council has the first of May 2022 as the completion date.
Inflows are also taken into account
As for the elevation of the dam, this measure can only be carried out if the area for it is owned by the municipality, said Strobl, who is already trying to hold talks with the new owner. Another partial measure, which will not be tackled until 2023/24, concerns the side inflows into the Heubach from the direction of the Höhlmühle and from Hofheimer Straße. These inlets are to be made flood-proof. A third part, which could possibly be implemented in 2026, concerns the Koppenbergweiher and the flood-proof drainage of its water into the Heubach.
The costs for the entire project are immense for the small community. The first part alone, with the dam elevation and the construction of the wall, was originally estimated at 1.05 million euros. The fact that the dam elevation and the construction of the wall cannot now be carried out in parallel will, according to Strobl, probably not affect the costs. He reckons that building the wall alone will cost around 200,000 euros. 65 percent of this could be funded.
