"Grave of millions": Citizens' initiatives criticize the new parking garage in Regensburg

Created: 2022-01-20 13:41

Protest in front of the open excavation: Citizens' initiatives criticize the new parking garage on the former Nibelungen barracks.

© Michael Bothner

According to current estimates, it will cost 6.8 million euros: A new multi-storey car park for the area of ​​the former Nibelungen barracks in Regensburg.

Several citizens' initiatives consider its construction to send the wrong signal.

Regensburg - You can no longer prevent the project.

But they are upset.

Residents and citizens' groups took a stand at the weekend against a planned multi-storey car park on the site of the former Nibelungen barracks.

The area has changed a lot in recent years.

Where there used to be Bundeswehr buildings, there are now apartments and a park, urban gardening, a sports field and Regensburg's first (award-winning) inclusion playground.

The RUBINA house promotes the researchers of tomorrow.

And again, a little further north, one technology company follows the other.

The TechCampus directly opposite the OTH-Regensburg is regarded as a future-oriented business location for the region.

4,000 people will be employed here in the coming years.

A success-story.

New multi-storey car park: important project or million dollar grave?

Parking spaces are needed for these employees – this is the conviction of the city of Regensburg. There will be 377 parking spaces on a total of eleven half-storey levels – some underground. A photovoltaic system on the roof will supply 50 e-charging stations with renewable electricity. In bad weather, the municipal utility, as the operator, wants to supply the multi-storey car park with green electricity from the Regensburg hydroelectric power plant. This "Quartiers-Garage" is an "important infrastructure project", says Mayor Gertrud Maltz-Schwarzfischer, and just as indispensable as a good public transport connection. This multi-storey car park on Franz-Mayer-Strasse will cost 6.8 million euros.

The VCD Regensburg and the Citizens' Association South-East (BüSO), however, criticize the project sharply.

"6.8 million euros grave" is written on the banner with which they have positioned themselves in front of the excavation pit that has already been dug.

Together with representatives of the Friends of the Old Town, Omas for Future, attac and the ADFC.

Sustainable parking garage?

Citizens' initiative speaks of "greenwashing"

The major project was already approved by the city council in October 2020 - against the votes of the ÖDP and the two individual city councilors Jakob Friedl (Ribisl) and Irmgard Freihoffer (Linke).

The city and municipal utility speak of a sustainable project. A facade made of galvanized sheet steel squares is intended to direct natural light into the interior, while at the same time preventing light and noise emissions to the outside. Mayor Maltz-Schwarzfischer: "The north side will also be completely planted to make the view from the residential area of ​​the multi-storey car park more pleasant and natural."

On the other hand, BüSO board member Hans Brandl speaks of “greenwashing at the highest level”. Wolfgang Bogie (VCD) describes the million-dollar project as "completely unreflective". "It has very little to do with the turnaround in traffic." As a kind of "standard reflex of urban planning", according to Bogie, parking garages are a "relic from the past". And even if you can no longer stop the construction, you want to ask about its purpose. “Why does this project have to be tackled now? Why didn't you wait?"

According to Bogie, it is currently not at all foreseeable how the world of work will change as a result of Corona.

“More people will be working from home in the future.” It is already completely unclear how the city came up with the number of 377 parking spaces required and how the municipal utility intends to operate the building economically.

The draft resolution would not clarify all of this and the city "is not acting transparently here", criticizes the VCD chairman.

Greens in the city council: First for, now against

Stefan Christoph and Daniel Gaittet from the Greens will also be there on Saturday.

Your group had voted in October 2020 for the construction of the parking garage.

In the meantime, however, they had many questions about the usefulness of the project, according to Christoph.

"The city administration had repeatedly emphasized that the creation of these parking spaces was necessary." In the further course, however, new questions kept arising.

To date, there have been no satisfactory answers.

The Greens are now also rejecting the project.

Critics fear that the multi-storey car park could prove to be unnecessary and therefore completely unprofitable.

On the one hand, the companies would have to show their own parking spaces in accordance with the applicable parking space ordinance.

Furthermore, the free university car park is diagonally opposite.

Regensburg will invest 25 million euros in multi-storey car parks by 2025

There is a multi-storey car park just a few hundred meters away on Lore-Kullmer-Strasse, which is completely unused 107 days a year.

It was built a few years ago, along with the new FOS/BOS.

On weekdays, this car park is only open to students and teachers.

Completely closed at the weekend - for noise protection reasons.

The citizens' initiatives have also been calling for the parking areas at the Jahnstadion, south of the autobahn, to be opened up and connected to the city center via Park&Ride for a long time.

Instead, traffic will be drawn into the city with the new multi-storey car park.

In addition, Brandl and Bogie are convinced that better connections for bicycle and pedestrian traffic from the universities and the TechCampus towards the train station would be a crucial project.

All in all, the car park critics lack “the big story”, a coherent overall concept for the traffic turnaround.

The fact that more than 25 million euros are earmarked for the construction of additional car parks alone in the investment program up to 2025 - the Tech car park is not included - is considered a "wrong investment in Regensburg's future" on Saturday.