Oberursel needs a new swimming pool – I think most people in the town would agree on that.
And although they may not have agreed on how to finance it in the past, the current plan is to sell off the current car park as building land.
Again, most people would probably agree with that. If only it wasn’t for these trees:
(Click to enlarge)
The trees form a border between the current houses along the Altkönigstraße and the car park, and in the Bebauungsplan (Nr. 218) only the part of the row to the right of the photo is set to remain.
Why?
Well, that’s something I’d like to be able to answer. According to one newspaper article back in March the strip of land was going to be offered to the neighbouring landowners for purchase. I don’t know why that apparently no longer applies to the entire strip and would have thought that the new land owners would have an interested in keeping the border that way.
Can anything be done to save the trees?
Another question that I’d like to be able to answer. Not if the member of the town parliament (and SPD party) that I spoke to recently is correct. When approached on the subject, I was told that it was too late to do anything because everything had long been decided.
It was this statement that made me decide to look into the subject a little deeper. The Bebauungsplan in question was indeed publically available for inspection between 17th April and 18th May this year. That’s hardly a “long” time ago. It’s even still in the Taunus Zeitung’s on-line archive.
But as recent as that may be, it was during that time that any comments or objections should have been made in the town hall for the planning committee to take into account when they discuss the plans.
There is, however, one small chance left to put the point forward, and that is the “question time” that takes place at the planning committee meetings. Perhaps the question about the sale could at least be put forward during that time, and maybe it would receive some consideration later.
That may be possible on 29th August when the committee next meets, it may not. I submitted a question to the town hall regarding this just over two weeks ago, but have yet to receive a reply.
Maybe it is just too late. At their last meeting the town council decided that during the summer break the town’s executive can take decisions concerning the sale of land in the town up to a value of 1.5 million Euro without consulting the planning committee and only has to inform them.
On the other hand maybe I’ll get an answer in time for the residents to go to the meeting on the 29th August, if they value the trees enough to buy the land.
Maybe it’s all long been decided.
About Graham Tappenden
Within a day of this article going on-line, I received an answer from the town hall.
It did not answer all of my questions, but it did clarify that some of the trees are scheduled to be removed to allow the building work to take place and that the neighbours could buy the land if they wanted to. I guess it is up to them now to take action.
I also learnt that there is an embankment containing a sewage pipe running under the line of trees, and whatever happens to the land it cannot be built on as the town retains access rights to that pipe.