Dispute over allotment garden: tenants desperate - "questionable" action by the city

Created: 2022-01-25 15:21

By: Stefanie Zipfer

Only sad: Lothar Fuchs has had a parcel on Schäferweg for 40 years.

Now his allotment should go.

© Norbert Habschied

The allotment garden on Schäferweg in Dachau has to go.

That's what the city wants.

But the tenants don't want to give up their plots without a fight.

Dachau – The allotment gardeners from Schäferweg don't want to give up their plots without a fight.

While the matter is now making waves nationwide and the water management office emphasizes that it actually has no problem with the gardens "in existence", the city is sticking to its line: the gardens have to go.

Dachau: Allotment gardens have to go - tenants despair over the city's tough actions

Jonas Hürten, the head of department responsible for the district of Dachau at the Munich Water Management Office, has been working intensively on flood protection for the city of Dachau for months.

As has been reported several times, Hürten's authority is currently working on various variants of how the residents of the large district town of Dachau will be able to do so in the coming years before the so-called 100-year anniversary

flood events can be protected.

The possible protection variants are based on computer-simulated models that depict the course of the water from the Amper and the Gröbenbach in the direction of the residential buildings in Dachau.

Flood expert Hürten emphasizes that the gardens on Schäferweg are always taken into account.

Hürten denies that the water management office wants to actively get rid of the allotment garden.

"We don't have a problem with the inventory," he says.

The problem with the Schäferweg gardens, however, and Hürten acknowledges this, is that they are not legal.

And "one way" of legalization is what the city of Dachau is planning: to regulate the use of the area via a development plan.

The fact that the city administration explained to the city councilors last week that building in a flooded area is prohibited is therefore also correct.

Water protection agency supports allotment gardeners - a glimmer of hope?

What Hürten cannot understand about the argument or where he contradicts the city: "What is nature can of course exist." Turnips" shouldn't be allowed to grow anymore is wrong: "Water can easily flow past a swing or a tree.

And there is also a deckchair by every body of water.”

So do the gardens have a chance after all?

Hürten does not want to interfere too much in Dachau affairs.

He only says: "Of course, structures such as garden sheds have to go." With a little good will, however, a development plan is not absolutely necessary.

The allotment gardens are in the so-called outskirts of the city, which is reserved exclusively for agricultural use.

"Garden use", according to Hürten, "is basically nothing other than grassland use".

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Lots of promises, nothing kept: Gardeners don't want to rely on the city's promises

The tenants of the gardens would be willing to make concessions.

After the past three years, in which they were promised a lot and in the end nothing was kept, they don't want to rely on the mayor's promise to be given preference in future allotment gardens in the city.

In addition, whether the 26 leaseholders of the plots, for which the owner Franz Scherm charges "an annual lease of less than 1 euro per square meter" and which are therefore affordable "even for less well-heeled classes", will ever find similarly affordable gardens in the Dachau district more than questionable.

Allotment gardener: "I thought we had survived the tiresome subject."

An allotment gardener who, as a young mother, was diagnosed with cancer five years ago and used her plot to recover from the stress of treatment, thinks: "It's all very emotional.

I thought we had gotten over the tiresome topic.” The fact that, despite promises to the contrary, the officially ordered move out of their garden paradise is now taking place, brings them “again to the brink of despair”.

Dispute over small gardens: no agreement in the building authority

However, the building authority is not prepared to make any compromises.

The head of the building authority, Moritz Reinhold, does not want to comment on Hürten's statements to the local newspaper in the press, preferring to "discuss" this personally with the head of the authority.

With the owners or tenants, one is therefore still trying to "agree and agree on reasonable (several years) deadlines for dismantling".

On top of that, Reinhold considers Hürten's argument that there is nothing wrong with the continued existence of the gardens to be wrong.

Because “of course, the rod of a single swing does not represent a significant obstacle and does not lead to a loss of retention space.

However, it is the sum of all parts that has an effect".

However, those affected cannot remember a flood that ever “had an effect” on the allotment gardens.

And if it's about real flood protection, "why was the system on Moosstrasse legalized?

It's only 300 meters from the creek."

The gardens on Schäferweg are one kilometer away from the Gröbenbach - and in between, according to tenant Lothar Fuchs, "is a field".

Controversy over allotment gardens: owner finds the city's approach "questionable"

Owner Franz Scherm therefore wants to get legal advice.

What also interests him: “What legal force can a demolition agreement that the city and the tenants sign have?

I'm the owner after all!" In any case, the procedure of the building authority, asking him for the names of the tenants and then "putting pressure" on them behind his back, is at least "questionable".

The fact that the Bavarian Radio show “Quer” was recently interested in the topic proves that the cause has already attracted national attention.

Their mission, according to self-promotion: "See what's going wrong".

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