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Controversy over biotope development in Regensburg continues: conservationists are considering lawsuits - "Turn on your brain"

2022-04-06T15:50:19.138Z


Controversy over biotope development in Regensburg continues: conservationists are considering lawsuits - "Turn on your brain" Created: 06/04/2022, 17:35 By: Stefan Aigner Demo at the city park in the west of Regensburg. BN chairman Raimund Schoberer is considering filing a lawsuit against the building plans. © Michael Bothner The development of a wooded area in the west of Regensburg is getti


Controversy over biotope development in Regensburg continues: conservationists are considering lawsuits - "Turn on your brain"

Created: 06/04/2022, 17:35

By: Stefan Aigner

Demo at the city park in the west of Regensburg.

BN chairman Raimund Schoberer is considering filing a lawsuit against the building plans.

© Michael Bothner

The development of a wooded area in the west of Regensburg is getting closer and closer.

The Federal Nature Conservation Agency is now threatening to sue the project.

Regensburg - Will the dispute over the development of a biotope in the west of Regensburg go to court?

While around 50 nature conservationists were still demonstrating in the small city park on Lilienthalstrasse on Monday, the next day the city councilors in the planning committee took the next step in the direction of residential development.

Against the votes of the ÖDP, Greens and Left, the winning draft of a planning competition passed the committee by a majority.

Dispute in the biotope development in Regensburg: "The best we could achieve"

The dispute has been smoldering for over a year.

About 70 percent of the wooded area has been mapped as a biotope - the conservationists, who have meanwhile collected more than 3,000 signatures against the project of the "Real Estate Center Regensburg" group, argue that it is important for the climate and species protection.

But the city disagrees.

Since 1988, there has been a large-scale building permit for trade in the area, so a development towards more residential development is the best thing that can be achieved.

Because: The biotope does exist, but it does not enjoy any legal protection, argues the urban planning officer Christine Schimpfermann.

This means that the investor has a right to building rights – everything else could result in claims for recourse.

"That's the best we could achieve," says CSU City Councilor Josef Zimmermann.

Residential development instead of a biotope in Regensburg: "That's what we want"

A municipal climate report, which expressly identifies the area as a "locally important thermal compensation area with significant climate-related activity", combined with the note that "no further development should be permitted" on the area, is merely an "internal administration document" with no legally binding effect.

The planning officer has the majority in the city council on her side.

The design by a Munich architect's office is consistently praised - as a successful balance between a pleasant living atmosphere and a public green space.

"That's what we want," says SPD city councilor Klaus Rappert.

City Councilor Gabriele Opitz (FDP) also warns of the signal that is sent out if you make it difficult for an investor to develop because a biotope has unintentionally developed on his area, simply because it remained undeveloped for so long.

"Others will draw the conclusion that everything on their fallow land should be kept as short as possible." SPD, CSU, Free Voters, FDPm and the Brücke faction of the former Regensburg Mayor Joachim Wolbergs also voted for the winning design.

(By the way: Our brand new Regensburg newsletter will keep you regularly informed about all the important stories from the World Heritage city and the Upper Palatinate. Register here.)

Conservationists angry: "Turn on your brain"

For the representatives of the nature conservation associations, this approach by the city is incomprehensible.

The area on Lilienthalstraße seems to be just the straw that broke the camel's back.

"It's about a lot of areas in the city," says Josef Paukner from the Donau-Naab-Regen-Allianz, for example.

But step by step, valuable areas would be sealed – to the detriment of everyone.

"Sometimes I think to myself: Turn on your brain.

We need space for the climate and for biodiversity.” But to think so far, the processes in politics and administration are simply too entrenched.

Raimund Schoberer (Bund Naturschutz) is meanwhile combative.

"I am confident that the trees will still be here in ten years," he says.

Schoberer considers the commercial building law based on a development plan from 1988, which justifies the investor's legal claim for the current residential development, to be dubious.

Now the conservationists are considering filing a lawsuit.

The majority of city councilors rejected the petition against building on Tuesday.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-04-06

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