Denklingen - “We need living space. But it has to be compatible ”. That is the idea that drives Anita Gropp and Manfred Gayer from Denklingen, who collect signatures for a referendum. After building the almost 60 apartments on the former Schelkle farm, she is worried that investor Stefan Friebe would like to build more residential complexes on a second plot of land that he recently cleared next door on Bahnhofstrasse.
A good 300 signatures are already noted on the lists for the referendum, some are to be added. The initiators - Anita Gropp, Manfred Gayer and Bernhard Klingele are named as representatives of the referendum - want to bring about a possible further consolidation of a referendum. Then all adult residents in Denklingen, Epfach and Dienhausen are in demand.
In the community of Denklingen, with almost 3,000 inhabitants, there are around 2,200 eligible voters. At least ten percent of these have to sign for the referendum. The necessary number has now been reached, explains Anita Gropp, who, as a teacher, mainly used the school-free week after All Saints' Day to move from house to house. Gayer is retired and was able to invest some time in collecting signatures.
The entrepreneur Stefan Friebe had built four residential complexes on the former Schelkle-Hof.
Three of them have now been moved into.
One that is close to Bahnhofstrasse is still being completed.
To the west of this, the investor has acquired another plot of land on which an old house still stands and where the garden has meanwhile been cleared.
The initiators of the citizens' initiative are now concerned that there will continue to be massive densification of apartments.
"Following the acquisition of the corner property at Bahnhofstrasse / Birkenstrasse by the building contractor and after the property was cleared immediately, the suspicion arises that the existing property here is to be expanded and the community is to be faced with a fait accompli." Citizens' petitions written down.
The question is whether the townscape of Denklingen can be significantly changed with an expansion of an already existing group of apartment blocks including an underground car park.
Another keyword is the traffic situation on the way to the primary school on Birkenstrasse, which is exacerbated by the increased volume of car traffic.
In addition, the aim is to prevent a large underground car park from creating a considerable risk for the fire brigade volunteers in an emergency.
Gropp: "It is a mystery to me how such a large underground car park could be approved for fire protection!"
Careful development
“We want careful development,” say Manfred Gayer and Anita Gropp.
The growth of recent years in Denklingen has resulted in many families and people living in the An der Obstwiese construction area and now also in the 56 residential units that have already been built on Bahnhofstrasse, who have little connection to the locality.
Anyone who signs up on the list is against the expansion of the apartment block on Bahnhofstrasse.
Gropp and Gayer want to continue collecting in November.
Anyone who expresses interest can also contact them.
They would then like to hand over the signature list to Mayor Andreas Braunegger.
He has experience with petitions for citizens in Denklingen.
Because he himself was the driving force behind the petition against the building of a new town hall on the former Neuwirt property.
Back in May 2014, there was a clear vote against these plans in the referendum.
Braunegger has been the head of the town hall himself since January 2018, which has been located in the extensively renovated former Gasthof Hirsch for two years.
At the request of our editorial team, Braunegger does not (yet) want to comment on the current collection of signatures against other apartment blocks on Bahnhofstrasse.
He wants to wait and see “what will be handed over to us soon”, he formulates cautiously.
