Isarleitenweg residents defend themselves against residential development: "Not to be accepted"

Affordable living space is to be created on a plot of land between Gabriel-von-Seidl- and Isarleitenweg in Bad Tölz.

Residents associate massive fears with the project.

Bad Tölz

- a hotel was once planned on the property.

After this project failed in 2017, the city of Bad Tölz reserved an area belonging to it on Arzbacher Strasse for the construction of affordable housing instead.

This project is now on its way.

The corresponding development plan is currently open to the public for the second time until November 23 and could soon be approved by the city council.

But that is exactly what the directly affected residents of Isarleitenweg want to prevent.

During a tour with the Tölzer Kurier, they explain why the planned development of the meadow is “unacceptable”, as they say, from their point of view.

Local residents fear massive effects on their own homes

A meadow, framed by the row of trees along the Gabriel-von-Seidl-Weg pedestrian path, by a row of smaller houses along the Isarleitenweg and by the busy connection between B472 and Bockschützstraße: this is the plot of land around which the dispute revolves.

There is no precise plan yet.

In any case, multi-storey apartment building is planned.

In this way, three apartment blocks with around 30 residential units could be created.

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Plan and counter-proposal: The city wants to build residential buildings between Isarleiten- and Gabriel-von-Seidl-Weg (1).

The residents thought another area next to the Arzbacher Straße car park would be more suitable.

(Screenshot)

© Google Maps

Do the neighboring homeowners just want to keep the luxury of a free meadow behind their gardens and, out of self-interest, are bracing themselves against the creation of urgently needed affordable living space?

Max Hildenbrand, Gabriele Mettal as well as Gerlinde and Sepp Harbeck resist this when they describe their view of things in conversation.

“We're not anti-social,” says Hildenbrand.

“Living space is needed, that's clear,” says Sepp Harbeck.

However, the residents consider the designated space unsuitable and fear massive effects on their own houses.

Concern: basements could be flooded regularly

One of the biggest concerns: The planned development could increase the risk that the cellars of the neighboring houses will fill up. An adjacent street is not called Brünnfeldweg for nothing, they explain. "The area is riddled with different watercourses," says Hildenbrand. To illustrate, they step on the slope between Isarleitenweg and the lower parking lot behind the Hirsch sports studio. It ripples everywhere, you can see small watercourses in different places, also a contained spring. "And the water comes from exactly where an underground car park is to be built."

The meadow on which the apartments are to be built was flooded several times in the previous rainy summer, says Hildenbrand.

“What happens when a large part of the area is sealed?” He asks.

Gerlinde Harbeck thinks she knows the answer.

“The groundwater level rises, and our cellars are flooded as a result.” But the cellar walls of the old buildings are not strong enough for this.

Will the lifeline of the avenue trees on Gabriel-von-Seidl-Weg be cut off?

The residents also worry about the development of the planned residential buildings. As reported, the city relies on an approach from the connecting piece between B472 and Bockschützstraße. "With this development, you would inevitably cut the trees on Gabriel-von-Seidl-Weg," says Sepp Harbeck. He fears: The roots of the old trees, which reach far below the meadow, will be destroyed, and the trees' lifeline cut off. In addition, the development at this point is complicated and expensive. As reported, the Weilheim State Building Authority had also reported major concerns that a junction would be clearly and safely possible here.

Last but not least, the residents consider building the meadow with three large residential buildings to be too massive.

“That would be blocks of the same size as the new residential building on Königsdorfer Strasse,” says Hildenbrand.

When a large residential building on Ketteler-Ring was rejected, the city made the comparison with the surrounding development.

"And suddenly the argument no longer counts here."

The avenue and meadow were classified as “worth preserving”

Gabriele Mettal refers to the minutes of a city council meeting in 2016 in which the avenue on Gabriel-von-Seidl-Weg was classified as “worth preserving” - expressly including the adjacent meadow. Also in the recently published "Preliminary investigation of the bathing section", the meadow is marked as a "place worth preserving". "It is one of the last freely accessible green spaces in the city with the most beautiful avenue in Tölz," says Hildenbrand. He describes it as "arbitrariness" to reserve the area for tourist use first and then to plan residential developments there.

Much better, say the residents, if the residential development could be implemented just a little further on also urban land: namely on an area on Arzbacher Strasse next to the parking lot there.

"Here you would save millions in development costs and would have no water problem," says Sepp Harbeck.

A possible height of the ground floor plus two plus attic would seamlessly connect to the hospital on the opposite side of the street, adds his wife.

"It doesn't hurt anyone here."

Residents feel "dispossessed" by the Isarleitenweg development plan

The residents have another problem with the development plan. It is supposed to also “legally secure the development of the existing buildings”, as it is called. The aim is to draw the Isarleitenweg, which is currently only 2.50 meters wide and 5.5 meters wide, into the development plan. The residents do not trust the assurances of building authority manager Christian Fürstberger, that in practice this does not mean an expansion of the Isarleitenweg, but only serves the legally correct development of their properties. "With the current width, there have never been any difficulties here," says Gabriele Mettal. "It is a path that many pedestrians and cyclists use, and it should stay that way." If the development plan has a width of 5.5 meters, no one can guaranteethat this will not be implemented in the future.

In addition, the residents protest against the fact that a green strip along the Isarleitenweg is drawn in the development plan.

In reality, however, there are already two garages on this "green strip", argues Hildenbrand.

In addition, it runs across his property, so that around 380 square meters of it can no longer be freely used.

“For example, I shouldn't build a garage on top of it.

It is still my property, but it has been massively devalued. ”Here Hildenbrand feels“ violently expropriated without any argument for it ”.

Before the development plan is adopted, the residents want to present their arguments to the city council personally and invite them to take a tour of the site.

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