Diessen's new bathing paradise

Created: 09/22/2022, 12:36 p.m

By: Dieter Roettig

The people of Dießen can look forward to a new recreation and bathing area in St. Alban.

The municipality wants to upgrade the former campsite and sailing club site.

© Roettig

Dießen – The 9,000 square meter dream property south of the St. Alban lakeside restaurant was actually supposed to be used as a recreation and bathing area last summer.

The reason for the delay is an investigation ordered by the Lower Contaminated Sites and Soil Protection Authority in the Landsberg District Office.

Because lumps of tar were found in the neighboring property with the restaurant.

Since mobile homes, trailers and boats belonging to the Augsburg sailing community have been stored on the Dießen site, it was assumed that the ground here was also contaminated.

And indeed, minor contamination was found in a sub-area.

As landscape architect Johanna Vogl explained at the current municipal council meeting, there are two alternatives to the required renovation.

Firstly, removing the contaminated topsoil and applying a new layer of topsoil or covering it with a layer of soil at least ten centimeters thick.

However, the decision on this depends on a new “fine-scale investigation into the spatial limitation of the pollutant load”.

The municipal council approved this investigation.

Irrespective of this, Vogl presented the committee with a preliminary design for the design of the park-like site.

In order to achieve a continuous and permeable character, groups of shrubs, smaller trees and fruit trees should be removed and replaced by new plantings with species appropriate to the location.

Vogl could imagine the demarcation from the sailing club with free-growing shrubs in loose groups.

The hedge on the heavily frequented Seeweg-Süd, on the other hand, was intended to offer a view of the public green space.

In order to achieve a spatial demarcation on the one hand and to prevent parked cars on the other hand, the current hedge should be left in place and only supplemented in places.

Vogl would like to develop the cut hedge at about fence height.

A gravel path is planned in the middle of the site, from which two paths lead to the shore, supplemented by benches, sun loungers and bicycle racks.

Even a power supply for any events is planned.

FW local councilor Florian Zarbo's request for a children's playground with a climbing frame was rejected, but Hannelore Baur's (SPD) suggestion for a barbecue area for young people was accepted.

With the expected gross costs of around 213,000 euros, the municipal councils had to swallow.

The sum is broken down into earthworks such as terrain modeling, new routing or surface areas for just under 78,000 euros, 73,000 euros for equipment and power supply and just under 62,000 euros for vegetation areas.

Added to this are the costs of cleaning up the contaminated area.

There will be no toilets on the site, as "structures" are not allowed.

However, the district will soon be building a facility to the north of the campsite.

While the landscape architect wants to "make the public area tangible and emphasize the value", the municipal councilor Marc Schlüpmann (Green Party) was too expensive and too much of a good thing.

According to his memory, originally only a publicly accessible meadow was planned.

According to Johann Rieß (FW), the whole thing should not be "too professional and therefore not a second lake facility." Beatrice von Liel (Bürger of Dießen) defended the unnecessary two meter wide gravel paths for some councillors, because they were also used by construction yard vehicles for landscape maintenance Need to become.

Ultimately, the municipal council approved the continuation of the preliminary draft with 18:5 votes.

As reported several times, Dießen's former mayor Herbert Kirsch succeeded in acquiring the site from the city of Augsburg in 2020 on the last day of his 24-year term.

For eleven years he had fought for the lake property with a view of Andechs to make it freely accessible - a game of patience that even involved courts and ultimately led to a positive result for the community.