Gilching's mayor Manfred Walter: "Small dent is good for development"

Created: 01/14/2022, 17:05

By: Peter Schiebel

Welcome to Gilching: Manfred Walter from the SPD has been mayor of the community for 14 years.

© Andrea Jaksch

In an interview with Starnberger Merkur, Gilching's Mayor Manfred Walter talks about the population decline and important local projects.

Gilching - With this fact, Gilching's Mayor Manfred Walter amazed the audience at the town hall meeting at the end of November: For the first time in living memory, the population of the third largest district municipality fell in 2021.

The municipality counts 19,470 citizens, said Walter, which is a decrease of 87 people.

The challenges for Gilching have not become any smaller because of this - the mayor is sure of that.

Mr. Walter, how does it feel to be the mayor of a shrinking municipality?

Very unusual.

This is indeed a completely new situation for us.

In recent years we have always kept an eye on when we will reach the number of 20,000 inhabitants.

If the influx of recent years had continued, it would probably have been in 2022 or 2023.

Now this small dent is good for the development.

That gives us time to consolidate.

In what way?

We have invested a great deal of money in childcare facilities in recent years.

There's a little bit of pressure right now.

The situation is no longer as dramatic as it used to be.

We have a place for everyone in the kindergarten area, and there is a short waiting list for the crèches.

The greatest need is for after-school care.

And the legal entitlement from 2026 onwards also worries me.

Because there are new costs for the community?

It would be business madness if we had to spend millions on new houses because the children are not allowed to be looked after in the school after school, but in other rooms.

That then other staff comes, okay, but otherwise.

I don't know what the demand is and how many buildings we need.

And I don't have land for it either.

That's still music of the future.

What is happening in the short term when it comes to childcare?

The area of ​​the former youth center on Weßlinger Straße has already been cleared.

This year we are starting the development plan process for a new crèche with six groups.

And on Herbststraße, construction work has started on a new day-care center with 50 places in a kindergarten and 36 in a crèche.

It replaces the outdated containers of the BRK treasure chest on the fairground.

I expect the building permit so that we can start in March, April.

The focus is not only on childcare, but also on the fire brigade.

Two new tool sheds are on the agenda, one for Gilching and one for Geisenbrunn.

Financially, these are the biggest projects we have ahead of us.

In Gilching we are in the process of completing the planning application.

Our planning office expects the approval shortly before Christmas 2022. That means we have to deal with the financing for the 2023 budget.

We are talking about around 17 million euros that we have to finance.

In Geisenbrunn we are not that far yet.

The construction is financed by loans, like the new town hall?

Yes, we lack the necessary own funds.

With the loan financing of the new town hall, we have had positive experiences with 0.86 percent interest over 30 years.

But every loan must of course also be repaid.

And that reduces the financial leeway in the household.

The renovation of the Roman road seems to have come to a standstill.

With the new building of the Raiffeisenbank, the central private project will be completed in the next few weeks, but nothing is happening from the community side.

The redesign of the Römerstraße is part of the mobility concept that we commissioned.

And we don't want to prioritize individual measures.

The planner will start work in January, not only on the Roman road, but also in the forest colony.

The Roman road is relatively complex because we plan from house wall to house wall.

The private owners are also involved, but also receive grants from urban development funding.

I think we will have results next year.

In the extension of the Römerstraße, i.e. Am Römerstein, the municipality is planning a small piece of one-way street that will affect traffic in the direction of Gut Hüll, Gauting and Krailling.

They only got the police involved in the considerations after a delay.

How is it going?

The police have now issued their statement.

She agrees to the plans.

We will discuss the issue at the next Environment, Energy and Transport Committee meeting in March.

There were also discussions with the police about the traffic lights that had been set up in the meantime, including the changed right of way at the junction with Münchner Strasse.

How is it going there?

The district office asked us to see the entire street in one go.

This means that we will not change anything about the situation at the moment.

The only thing we are considering at the moment is getting a leaner solution for the temporary traffic light.

The provisional protrudes a lot into the road.

The rescue service has even reported that there could be a tricky situation there.

There will be construction sites elsewhere.

The municipal utilities, which are still new, are tackling the issue of district heating.

That's correct. District heating plays a major role in the energy transition. In 2022 we will lay the lines along Landsberger Strasse, in 2023 it will be the turn of Sonnenstrasse. It's a lot of work and it costs a lot of money, but it also makes me very proud. I don't know of any other community services that care as much about the issue as ours. We will move millions and hope that as many as possible will join us. However, we will only succeed if customers do not pay much more for district heating than for gas or oil. The success of deep geothermal energy therefore also depends on the price, among other things. If that works, it will be a very good contribution to climate neutrality. If not, we'll have to look for another source of energy.

The open-space photovoltaic system on the Autobahn near Geisenbrunn has been decided.

What about wind turbines?

In the land use plan, an area on the border to Schöngeising is earmarked for wind power.

In terms of topography, this is the highest point.

One or two wheels could be created there.

However, this has so far failed due to the radar guidance height.

If we succeed at some point, Gilching would be mathematically self-sufficient in terms of electricity, but not yet in terms of heat.

Gilching's commercial areas are nearing completion, both at the Porsche roundabout and south of the autobahn.

What comes next?

We currently have no more commercial space, but I get three to four calls a week from companies looking for a plot of land. Looking ahead, we are well advised to revitalize our old commercial area from the 1980s. This is no longer pretty and is no longer used properly. We have identified 40 apartments there alone, not all of which are certainly permitted. But that's not something that can be done in five years. We're talking more about the next ten, 15, 20 years. We are already in talks with an external consultant. The property owners will be involved in the spring. There, in the north, there are also a few hectares of land. We're talking about rounding off the western bypass. However, it is only about Gilchinger needs and not about external companies,that we want to resettle.

Gilching has gladly accepted them in recent years.

Where do you see opportunities then?

Other municipalities now have the opportunity to accommodate companies.

For example, there is sufficient potential on Gautinger Flur at the airport and on Weßlinger Flur on the airport site.

How did you perceive the mood in Gilching in the second Corona year?

On the one hand, a certain corona routine has developed, on the other hand I can feel that people are becoming more and more dissatisfied and sensitive.

The pandemic is pulling people down.

Perhaps a certain overload also plays a role.

We now had two or three generations who never experienced massive problems in society.

We are no longer trained to deal with it.

Nevertheless, everyone has to make their contribution.

That's why some overreact.

And how is the mood in the municipal council?

In 2021 there was a crunch and a crack, for example during the discussion about traffic management on Talhofstraße.

We started with Corona and since then there have been no communication interfaces.

The council meeting starts with the meeting and ends with it, all the before and after is missing.

But I look to the next two years with confidence.

It has always been like this: in the first third of the six-year electoral period you have to find yourself, and in years three and four you work best.

Now we are entering the third year.

I think we've found a good way to work together.

And there's no way I would say we're in a bad mood.