The dissent was loud and clear, resonating powerfully through Haar. Many protested on social media that the town hall wanted to have 32 trees felled in order to set up 16 container classrooms in front of the school during the renovation of the Ernst Mach Gymnasium and to create parking spaces for teachers’ and students’ cars afterwards. Now the municipality has corrected the plans and only considers the felling of up to eleven trees to be necessary. This reduction was also achieved because this time the school directorate was asked and it was found that there was no need to provide any parking spaces for high school students over the age of 18. Because they all go to school publicly, walk or cycle, as Reimar Pfalz from the building authority said on Tuesday.
From the point of view of many, the intervention in the grown greenery at the school on the Jagdfeldring was obviously far too radical and came up for discussion in the building committee in mid-January when it came to the building permit for the containers. Since then, Haar has been discussing tree protection again. Peter Paul Gantzer (SPD) now said in the municipal council that the outcry had made a difference. The solution presented now is correct. “But,” he also said, “I don’t like the way there.” He asked how the idea of carrying out such a clear cut came about in the first place.
The school can do without 36 parking spaces entirely
Mayor Andreas Bukowski (CSU) emphasized that the solution now found has nothing to do with the protest. Rather, by taking a closer look at the parking space statutes, a way was found to get more trees. According to the report at the meeting, this statute stipulates that parking spaces are to be provided depending on the number of students over the age of 18. But this has nothing to do with reality; as well as the assumption of how many parking spaces are to be taken into account for the grammar school and primary school. We took a closer look there too. Reimar Pfalz calculated that there were fewer classes at primary school than expected and more at high school. He said that 36 parking spaces could be dispensed with simply because there was no need to take 18-year-olds into account. In the end, seven parking spaces were still missing, which they wanted to designate for the time of the school construction site at the forest cemetery.
The municipal council agreed to the felling under the stipulation that it would be checked whether one or the other tree could still be preserved. Environmental officer Lukas Röder emphasized that some trees were damaged by rot. Only four are protected by the Tree Protection Ordinance. Mayor Bukowski explained that the last word on the stock of trees will only be spoken when the open space planning has been drawn up in autumn. Ulrich Leiner (Greens) called for no further trees to be sacrificed and a mobility concept for the schools in Jagdfeld to be created. “Then maybe we can even plant trees instead of cutting them down.”