Controversial hornbeams remain

Created: 01/22/2022, 12:02 p.m

On-site visit to the tree: City councilors and residents walked the beeches and the hedge on Thursday, with the residents once again making it clear how little they want the hornbeams.

© Andrea Jaksch

The farce about hornbeams on Possenhofener Straße in the area of ​​house numbers 16 to 40 has come to an end - the trees remain.

The city council's environmental committee decided against four votes from the CSU and BLS.

Local residents are opposed to the planting for a number of reasons.

Starnberg

- It almost seems as if the hornbeams are one of the dominant issues in city politics, they have been an issue so often. The occasion this time was a CSU application to dig up the more than two dozen trees (they aren't trees yet). The old trees had to be felled last year for safety reasons, and the city administration was actually tasked with presenting the project to the committee and asking local residents before planting began. That in itself was unusual, and it is even more unusual that neither of these things happened – the administration has apologized for this on several occasions. Local residents, they say, were informed more than consulted, and only after the planting. During an on-site visit on Thursday, they once again made their concerns clear to the environmental committee.

Among other things, they fear that the beech trees, which will be tall in a few years, will shed a lot of leaves, but above all will darken the service road along Possenhofener Straße. The light from the street lamps on the east side will not penetrate them - "a dark tunnel" is created. That is why there is a plan by the city administration to have more street lamps installed there. “Who thinks up something like that?” Asks resident Susanne Nunn. There is no room for it on the already narrow residential street. It quickly became clear to the city councilors that such plans are not particularly helpful.

However, a majority had spoken out against the planting.

Sengl's parliamentary colleague Dr.

Ursula Lauer found no problem with the hornbeams - they are easy to care for and trim.

And they don't grow "monster-like" either, as some fear.

Even suggestions for the secondary use of the beech trees - Mignoli thought of the Wiesengrund, a local resident agreed to include some trees - had no influence on the decision. The books stay.

This does not apply without restriction to the hedge between Possenhofener and Anliegerstraße. In the northern part it is rather meager, further south it is quite strong and high. So far, the city has cut it once a year - decidedly too little, as local residents complain. At the on-site visit, the hedge presented a rather inconspicuous picture, as it had been trimmed a few months ago. Resident Waldtraud Beigel had a photo with her of what the hedge looks like in summer – wide, green, high. Consequence: If a car is parked on the right side of the street, you can only get past it by making contact with the hedge – not to mention cyclists in oncoming traffic. In addition: The hedge extends to the junction of the residents' road with Possenhofener Strasse and considerably restricts the view there. Local residents fear that this could also happen later due to the broadly growing beeches.Local resident Franz Winklbauer has already used scissors to improve the view. He fears a serious accident one day, especially when cargo cyclists with children want to turn there. You can hardly see the traffic at the junction, and motorists on Possenhofener Straße can hardly see the junction.

The committee followed these arguments - there was broad agreement to shorten the hedge by up to ten meters to improve visibility.

Oliver Jauch, traffic officer for the Starnberg police, welcomes this: "If the hedge disturbs the view, it has to go." But there have not been any accidents at this point so far.

The city councilors want to have a ban on stopping at the junction checked, which needs to be clarified with the district office (it is responsible for state roads).

In addition, the hedge should be cut twice a year instead of just once and cared for in such a way that only hawthorn remains.

The prices show why some city councilors fear the follow-up costs: The double cut should cost 7800 euros per year.