This Monday, the representatives of the citizens’ initiative “Preserve green spaces” will submit their papers to the district administration department (KVR). Initiator Stefan Hofmeir and his colleagues want to roll three wheelbarrows full of boxes with lists of names in front of the main entrance of the KVR on Lindwurmstrasse. They have collected almost 60,000 signatures, far more than was necessary for the first step on the way to the formulated goal: to persuade the state capital of Munich to “do everything so that both the general green spaces designated in the land use plan and their public green spaces are preserved and not to be further sealed”. In other words, the city should not convert any more green spaces into building land.
In order for a referendum in Bavaria to lead to a legally binding referendum, it must be supported by three percent of those entitled to vote – in Munich that’s around 35,000 people. “We assume that about 25 percent of the votes will not be recognized,” said Hofmeir before signing. These will be checked by KVR employees over the next few weeks and compared with the city’s population register; In the end, only people who are registered in Munich on the day of submission are counted. “Experience shows that many people sign, but are not registered here, especially students,” explains city councilor Tobias Ruff from the Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP): “That’s why you collect more signatures to be on the safe side.” Especially since the KVR also sorts out illegible information, as well as data from residents who have died in the meantime.
The corona pandemic got in the way of the “Preserve green spaces” project. Shortly before the first lockdown in March 2020, the alliance of citizens’ initiatives, nature and environmental protection organizations and the ÖDP had already reached 35,000 signatures. “During Corona, we then had a two-year standstill,” says Hofmeir. It was not until spring 2022 that they were able to approach people again with their concerns, even early in the morning at the Kocherlball or most recently at the Winter Tollwood, they collected more signatures.
Stefan Hofmeir has long been committed to preserving public green spaces in Munich. In 2016 he got involved in the Unutilwiese in Trudering, part of which the city wanted to cut off in order to build around 100 apartments on it. The successful initiative “Save the Useless Meadow” resulted in the request “Preserve Green Spaces”, which aims to protect all of the approximately 1,200 parks and green spaces in the city.
The Unutilwiese in Trudering should be built on in part – a citizens’ initiative has prevented this until now.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
In October 2018, the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV) published a study according to which Munich is the most densely sealed city in Germany: Almost 47 percent of the urban area is asphalted, concreted or built on. In Berlin it is only 39 percent, in Hamburg 36, in Cologne 34. The insurance industry was primarily concerned with its investigation of the extreme precipitation to be expected: the more soil is sealed, the less rainwater can seep there, the more it rises risk of flooding. For the Munich initiative, other factors also count for the preservation of the green spaces: they serve as local recreation areas and fresh air corridors, in the latter function they are generally good for the city climate.
In view of the climate protection aspect, it is surprising that the Greens reject the project. “This is a difficult topic for the Greens,” says Tobias Ruff; their attitude as a city council faction is “often contrary to the contents of the citizens’ initiative”. Stefan Hofmeir has a similar impression: the green-red majority in town hall has already signaled “that they feel their freedom of decision is restricted by the request” when it comes to construction policy. Apart from the ÖDP, only the left support the initiative in the city council.
Hofmeir and Ruff are therefore already excited to see how things will continue. The KVR must decide within a month whether the request is permissible, so the city council can only deal with it at the February general assembly at the earliest. After that there are several possibilities, firstly: The city council implements the request directly, which is unlikely. Second: There will be a referendum on the claim within a maximum of six months. Third: The city council counters the citizens’ initiative with its own proposal and has both voted on.
The initiators of the request do not expect the city to accommodate them and, for example, combine the date of the referendum with the state election on October 8th: On this occasion, a higher turnout is to be expected than with a solo appointment, and that in turn increases it chance that the necessary quorum of ten percent yes votes will be reached among all eligible voters in the referendum. So if 110,000 Munich residents vote for the request at some point in the coming months, the city would be obliged to implement it.
However, she is only legally bound to it for one year, but “we do hope that a referendum will last beyond that,” says Tobias Ruff. In any case, the city stuck to the so-called high-rise decision, according to which no building in Munich was allowed to tower above the Frauenkirche, for a long time, he recalled. Stefan Hofmeir is more cautious. “It will be exciting to see whether the city council will legally recognize the issue at all,” he believes. In Ingolstadt, the mayor recently declared an unwelcome request for the local green belt to be invalid, he says: The initiators then had to fight it out in court.