For a long time, the three mayors of the Odelzhausen community remained silent about the citizens' initiative "No industrial area with a gas station in Odelzhausen".
Now they spoke up.
And they make it clear: The move of the Aral petrol station over the autobahn is the right thing to do.
Odelzhausen
- three mayors, one thought - which Markus Trinkl puts it like this: It is time to “present the facts very clearly”. Together with his two deputies Johann Heitmair (CSU) and Wolfgang Steininger (FW), the community chief asked to the press conference yesterday to provide the arguments in favor of moving the Aral gas station to a planned industrial site east of the A8.
As reported several times, the citizens' initiative “No industrial area with gas station in Odelzhausen” wants to prevent this.
The alliance has collected a good 515 signatures.
Ten percent of the citizens have to sign for a referendum, in Odelzhausen's case that's 400. In a special meeting on Tuesday, November 23rd, 7.30 p.m., in the auditorium of the elementary and middle school, the municipal council will now decide whether the referendum will come.
“As a community, you keep your feet still when you initiate a referendum,” says Markus Trinkl, but now the time has come “to show: where does our community planning come from”.
In this context, Johann Heitmair formulated what all three mayors think together: "I cannot understand why a referendum has been initiated here!"
Order of the citizens
“In 2015 we received a clear mandate from our citizens to improve the local shopping opportunities.
The local council understood this mandate and implemented it successfully in a first step in 2019, ”said Trinkl.
He means, for example, the construction of the roundabout at the entrance to the village or the extensive elimination of vacancies in the center of the village.
Above all, however, the community chief is very satisfied with the developments in the industrial area - with the new Edeka building there, the establishment of the Rossmann drugstore and the Ihle bakery and restaurant.
All of this "has excellently complemented the area and contributed to its attractiveness".
Project group
Now, however, the project has to be completed - with the move of the Aral petrol station from the corner of Hauptstrasse and Rudolf-Diesel-Strasse over the autobahn to an area of just under 1.7 hectares. As early as 2016/17, the municipal council had decided to acquire a plot of land east of the motorway because of the commercial development. Trinkl: “The decision was made with one vote against. The corresponding zoning plan was also drawn up with only one vote against. "
Since 2016/17, the commercial development project group - appointed by the local council - has been dealing with the implementation of the move, although it was not easy to complete the planning processes with large corporations such as Aral, Lidl and Edeka, according to the mayor.
There were concrete interim statuses on the contractual talks in the municipal council.
In July 2020, according to Trinkl, a decision was made to establish a development plan for the area east of the motorway.
In July 2021, the plan was sent to the first public display.
The decision for the necessary second interpretation was made on September 20, 2021 with 19: 0 votes.
S-Bahn option
In addition, an important consideration has been made in the municipal council, said Trinkl.
There is a 40-meter-wide ban on cultivation zone in the plan on the motorway side, which is kept free from any building construction - as an option for a possible S-Bahn.
“The argument of the citizens' initiative that we are preventing the S-Bahn is precisely not the case,” adds Heitmair.
Fast charging stations
The Aral gas station was built in 2000.
No major investments have been made there since then.
According to Trinkl, it is not possible to build fast e-charging stations on the existing site.
East of the A 8, on the other hand, a large number of charging stations can be implemented thanks to a dedicated transformer.
A "certain number" are planned immediately, which "should be significantly expanded if necessary".
In this context, Steininger spoke of a "future-oriented gas station".
Traffic reduction
According to Trinkl, the move will reduce traffic on the western roundabout.
If you drive on the A 8 in the direction of Stuttgart and would like to refuel in Odelzhausen, you only have to drive on the eastern roundabout and no longer the western roundabout as well.
Truck parking
One thing is certain, said Trinkl, in the new area east of the autobahn there will be no rest stops or a truck stop.
It is 100 percent impossible that something like this will happen, because for this the municipality would have to designate a so-called special area, which was not planned.
Aral is currently allowing five to eight trucks to stay overnight at the petrol station.
"If the law is relocated, it will be carried over to the other side," said the mayor.
Trinkl continues: "It is not possible to estimate today whether there will be a moderate expansion to around 20."
“Aral”, Steininger insisted, “is not a driver for many parking spaces”.
From a planning point of view, it is not about the parking spaces, but rather about implementing what the citizens want, all three mayors agree.
