Erdinger city councilors outraged by Kletthamer criticism

Created: 03/03/2022, 15:00

By: Hans Moritz

Residents of the Sandgrubensiedlung fear that the planned Erding-West industrial area on Dachauer/Sigwolfstrasse could further increase the groundwater level in Klettham.

© CBRE/VIB Immobilien AG

The debate about the high groundwater in the Klettham Sandgrubensiedlung continues.

The city council has now resolutely rejected the criticism of not taking care of the concerns of the citizens.

Klettham – With a mixture of astonishment, annoyance and anger, the Erdinger city councilors reacted to the criticism from the Klettham sand pit settlement that the committee and the city administration were doing too little to protect the lower-lying settlement from rising groundwater during further development.

Several speakers and Mayor Max Gotz (CSU) rejected the allegations.

Hans Ott raised this in our newspaper.

He lives on Thoma-Strasse and has been fighting the groundwater pressure from below for years after the water penetrated his house from below during the flood in June 2013.

Ott has repeatedly warned the city about this.

The trigger for his most recent criticism was the planned development of the industrial area Erding-West, the densification in the Thermengarten-Süd and plans to build densely on the strawberry field adjoining the Sandgrubensiedlung.

According to Ott, the structures would cause the groundwater level to rise further.

And he complained: The city councilors were not interested in the concerns of the Klettham settlers.

In the city council, the second mayor, Petra Bauernfeind (FW), was surprised by Ott's public scolding.

She wanted to know from Gotz what the status was.

The well-known to have also been "surprised" when reading it.

He denied the allegations in their entirety.

"We have already proven that the Sandgrubensiedlung is important to us with the planning freeze in 2013." Not only the flood officers, but all the city councilors had shown themselves to be "extremely committed" to flood protection.

"We did everything right."

According to the mayor, the investors were only given the prospect of lifting the planning freeze for the strawberry field if they presented a convincing and verifiable concept for draining rainwater through a temporary retention basin, for example.

"Nothing has been approved yet," emphasized Gotz.

And he made it clear: "It's not just about seepage, but also about the groundwater." In addition, everyone has the right to raise objections in the approval process.

The Mayor recalled that the city had already cracked down on the strawberry field - a good ten years ago in the first, northern section.

At that time, the investor had built differently from the plan and, among other things, omitted the drainage of the water.

"We immediately imposed a stop and demanded construction as provided for in the development plan." His conclusion: the city council is not indifferent, "but interested, open-minded and attentive".

Hans Egger (Erding Now) also criticized the report, but aimed less at the complainant than at the editors.

Burkhard Köppen talked himself into a rage.

The CSU parliamentary group leader asked Gotz to straighten out the facts "so that nothing gets stuck with the city council".

In the groundwater issue, the experts had "really been perforated".

The allegations hit him hard.

He also replied to Ott's letter from December 2021.

The report contributes to damaging the reputation of the city councilors and fueling disenchantment with politics.

However, even Köppen said at the end: "We should check some points in Ott's letter again." Incidentally, that's exactly what Ott wanted to achieve.