Does Möschenfeld really need another underground car park? This is the question asked by Max Walleitner, spokesman for the Greens in the Grasbrunn municipal council. At the most recent meeting, the Finck Group project was approved, only Walleitner voted against. “I just don’t see a need,” he says. “So many weddings or pilgrimages to the Church of St. Ottilie do not take place there that such an intervention in nature and such an area sealing are justified.” In fact, Möschenfeld consists of just 66 registered residents. The heart of the Grasbrunn hamlet is the pilgrimage church of St. Ottilie, which was built in 1640 by the master bricklayer Balthasar Wölkhamer during the Thirty Years’ War. With its imposing appearance, it is still an attraction for visitors today. There is a parking lot opposite the church. According to Walleitner, this is rarely fully utilized. There is also an underground car park. In view of the small number of inhabitants, this leads to the question of whether there are not already more than enough parking spaces in Möschenfeld.
Nevertheless, another underground car park with around 45 parking spaces is to be built under the current car park. The Grasbrunn municipal council passed the required change to the land use plan in September 2021. The client is Agrar Grasbrunn GmbH & Co. KG, which belongs to the Finck Group. Behind the Finck Group is the banking family of the same name.
The Greens opposed the project at the time. And the Bund Naturschutz was also alarmed. Its chairman, Max Walleitner’s wife Doris Dorschner-Walleitner, initiated an online signature campaign against the construction of the underground car park, which 553 citizens have signed to date. In the petition, she complained that more than 3,000 square meters of ground would have to be sealed and a number of trees would have to be felled for this project. Her questions to the Finck family regarding nature conservation remained unanswered. “I would like to see better communication with the Finck family regarding construction projects in the community,” she says. “Because every tree is a biotope, and even more so the older it gets.” After all, their petition has achieved that the underground car park is now moved by a few meters, so that an old linden tree does not have to be felled.
According to Max Walleitner, however, some residents of Grasbrunn fear that the underground car park could only be the start of further construction projects in Möschenfeld. “According to the motto: Now we already have the garage, then we can also build other buildings.” Grasbrunners also repeatedly express their concerns about the great influence that the billionaire Finck family has in the community of Grasbrunn. It gives the impression that everything that the Finck family is planning is simply waved through so as not to alienate the powerful family dynasty.
“In any case, I’m not waiving anything just because it belongs to the Fincks.”
Mayor Klaus Korndeder (SPD) denies this. “In Grasbrunn, we attach great importance to underground parking. We welcome that because the cars disappear underground and don’t interfere with the landscape.” The fact that the construction was approved therefore has nothing to do with the Finck family. In his opinion, nature conservation was also taken into account. From the outside, apart from the entrance, you will hardly see anything of the underground car park. Visually, the planned greening should even improve the appearance of the landscape. To protect the existing linden tree, the plans for the underground car park were moved north by about five meters. And the row of trees along the road is not endangered either. The underground car park also does not trigger any further building rights, emphasizes the mayor.
Nevertheless, the question remains as to whether parking spaces are so urgently needed in Möschenfeld. “If a property owner takes money into their hands to build something, then I also assume that the need is there,” says Korneder and emphasizes: “But in any case I won’t wave anything just because the Fincks heard.” Many residents in Möschenfeld have more than one car. And they would probably just like to know that these second cars are underground, protected from the cold and rain.