Regional plan: How strong should Penzberg grow? Warning of "premature signal"

How strong should Penzberg grow in the future, does it need more residential areas and space for businesses?

Or is it enough?

In principle, these questions were now the subject of a controversial debate in the building committee and the city council.

It was sparked by the regional plan that is being updated for the region between Schongau and Miesbach.

Penzberg - “Region 17” comprises four districts with 450,000 inhabitants.

In the middle is Penzberg, one of the larger towns with around 17,000 inhabitants.

The planning association of the region, an amalgamation of the municipalities and districts, now wants to update the old regional plan, which is intended to represent a "long-term framework for orientation and action" for the Oberland.

In practice, it is about whether and to what extent the places should or want to grow.

Regional plan: "Fundamental suitability for increased settlement development"

Mail from the planning association has now been sent to all municipalities “with a fundamental suitability for increased settlement development”, including Penzberg.

The question that was posed to both the Penzberg building committee and the city council: Should the city of Penzberg be “a capital with increased settlement development”, which, together with other capital cities, takes on “the relief and development function for Region 17”?

The alarm bells are ringing at PM and Greens: "Premature signal"

At "Penzberg together" and part of the Green parliamentary group, the alarm bells rang. It was feared that Penzberg would commit himself to something if he said yes. Kerstin Engel (Greens) warned against a “hasty signal” that Penzberg agreed to disproportionate growth, especially since the city “has already done its homework in housing construction”. John-Christian Eilert (Greens) referred to a statement by the planning association, which expects a population increase in the Oberland of just under 4.2 percent by 2039. Penzberg, said Eilert, already has a much larger increase due to the current construction projects. In fact, Mayor Stefan Korpan (CSU) estimates that Penzberg's population will increase by more than 1,000 by 2030 due to the residential areas on the Edeka site, west of Birkenstrasse and on Daserweg.Against this background, Martin Janner (PM) wanted to know on what basis the "increased settlement development" is building - before or after the realization of the current construction projects. Like Markus Bocksberger (PM), he called for this to be discussed in the context of the new zoning plan before answering the planning association.

Mayor tries to allay concerns: "No obligation"

Mayor Korpan and city builder Justus Klement tried to dispel the concerns. Penzberg has already been classified as the main town, they explained. According to Klement, only the currently foreseeable development is reported to the planning association. According to him, this takes place in the form of the ISEK urban development concept from 2015. Potential residential areas are shown there in Wölfl and Reindl as well as on the railway line parallel to Alpenstrasse. New areas north and south of the Roche plant are marked for companies. The representation is about what is largely already in the zoning plan, said Korpan. This is "no obligation, just an analysis of what is possible". Klement also saidthat the regional plan is only an "informal preliminary phase" and that you can comment in detail later.

A clear majority followed the assessment. Jack Eberl (FLP) said you shouldn't read too much into the sentence. Penzberg is a commercial location that companies want to locate and also benefit from grants. He warned of the "signal to the outside" that he no longer wanted to be the main town. Regina Bartusch (SPD) raised concerns that the rail connection might no longer exist if Penzberg were not classified as the main town. Hardi Lenk (SPD) said that the capital city had more weight. Armin Jabs (BfP) said that although Penzberg felt it had grown in recent years, there was actually only a “stagnating to slightly increasing population”, “at least not exorbitantly”. In the end, the majority of the city council approved the classification “as a capital with increased settlement development”.The PM group and the Green City Councils Engel and Eilert said no.