The news spread like wildfire in the Hechendorf district of Murnau: a 40-metre-high mobile phone mast is to be erected at a very exposed spot with a postcard panorama.
The town hall administration is under criticism.
This is about information policy, but also about a missed deadline.
Hechendorf
– The Hechendorfer Klaus Strasser (name changed) makes no secret of his opinion: "The hair on the back of my neck stands on end." This is due to the actions of the Murnau town hall administration in connection with a planned cell phone tower.
Because the provider Vodafone wants to build a 40 meter high 4G steel lattice mast southeast of the Mp-21 petrol station.
With such a system, a unique view would be obstructed.
Strasser complained that the population was not taken and a deadline was missed.
Background: Considerations for a mast in the south of Murnau have been going on for a few years.
The municipality entered the dialogue process with Vodafone with a decision by the municipal council in September 2021.
In this context, "however, the deadline for naming suitable plots of land could not be met," admits Nina Herweck-Bockhorni, Deputy Manager at City Hall.
The Mobile Telecommunications Pact II provides for a period of 60 days to report any locations.
Meeting the deadline “was practically impossible”.
The reason: limited capacities of the expert.
The deadline ended in mid-October 2021.
No request for an extension of time
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Sarah Rötzer, spokeswoman for the Vodafone subsidiary Vantage Towers, says that the municipality had “expressed the desire to participate in the search for a location as part of the municipal vote”.
By the end of the eight-week period, however, nothing more had been heard from the municipality.
"There was also no application for an extension of the deadline." Herweck-Bockhorni explains this as follows: "So far, the deadline has not been a problem in interaction with the mobile phone providers, provided that an assessment has been announced." Vodafone was informed of this on October 5, 2021.
"Therefore, there was no explicit request for an extension of the deadline."
Strasser was already in contact with Mayor Rolf Beuting (ÖDP/Citizens' Forum) and the municipal administration a good six months ago.
"At the time, I was told that possible locations would be discussed publicly and as transparently as possible on the basis of the commissioned report.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen.” That's what it says in an e-mail that Strasser sent to Beuting, the municipal councils and the press.
Now the Hechendorfer is faced with the question of "how the Murnau market can miss the opportunity, especially with regard to such a sensitive topic - a 40-meter mobile phone mast - to enter into the dialogue process with Vodafone and thus limit its options for action to the maximum". .
According to him, the people of Hechendorf think the plans are “not so great for a variety of reasons”.
Strasser mentions, for example, the optics,
CSU parliamentary group spokesman Josef Bierling also shakes his head.
The Hechendorfer cannot understand why the Murnau market let the deadline pass and did not apply for an extension.
"Maybe there was still something to be done." He thinks it makes sense to contact Vodafone again.
"Then we might find another location." Bierling also complains that Beuting considers an information event for the citizens "not necessary".
Herweck-Bockhorni says: "An information event should still be held by the mobile phone provider."
Beuting rejects the accusation
Beuting rejects the accusation of a lack of transparency: "Transparency regarding the locations was established in the public building committee meeting on November 30, 2021." The federal and state governments are pushing ahead with the expansion of the mobile network and leaving the municipalities little freedom to make decisions.
"Therefore, a public discussion about desired locations is not very effective." It is important for the entire Murnau population that the assessment is primarily based on the results of the immission report and on the basis of urban planning aspects.
The Murnau market could have indicated a preferred location as part of the dialogue process.
However, the municipality "would not have had the option of rejecting a cell phone tower in this area," emphasizes Herweck-Bockhorni.
"The report, which examined four other locations in addition to the one now favored by Vodafone, has shown" that the location on the Wascherfeld that Vodafone is now targeting with one more "is the most suitable location".
Appraiser Hans Ulrich had checked the following locations in the south of Murnau: a roof on the Kapferstadl, a spot on the Lohstampf (BMX track), one in the green space between the B2/railway line/Hechendorf junction, one in the area of the small animal breeding club premises and the one on the Wascherfeld.
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