A housing project in the greater community that has been planned for five years will not be implemented until further notice. The construction of affordable apartments in Dorfstraße has been on the agenda since 2018, and the municipal council has now unanimously voted to put the project on the waiting list. When it can be taken down from there again is completely open.
It is one of the more ambitious projects in Vaterstetten and one that has already occupied the second mayor and the second municipal council: a housing estate is to be built on Dorfstrasse at the Ottendichler roundabout, not only on municipal land but also in municipal ownership. The background is the lack of affordable housing, which makes it difficult for kindergartens, old people’s homes, but also the municipality itself to persuade the urgently needed staff to change jobs in Vaterstetten.
In February 2020, the design for the north-west residential area was presented in the Vaterstetten town hall by the head of the building department, Brigitte Littke, the chairman of the jury, Hans-Peter Hebensperger-Hüther, and the then mayor, Georg Reitsberger.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
This is one of the reasons why it was decided in 2018 to rededicate a commercial area planned between Dorfstrasse and Ottendichler Strasse into a settlement with affordable apartments. A new location was found for the trade between Philipp-Maas-Weg and Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Straße, and it is to be occupied next year. The residential area, however, has made little progress. Mayor Georg Reitsberger presented a draft at the beginning of 2020 and a little later the new municipal council awarded the planning contracts for Vaterstetten Northwest.
This is what the winner of the competition for the Vaterstetten Northwest 2020 construction area looked like.
(Photo: community of Vaterstetten/oh)
But then there were delays. The winning design chosen in 2020 apparently displeased some in the municipal council, what it was specifically about was never made public, there were only vague statements that more cost-effectiveness was desired. In any case, the contract was withdrawn from the original office at the end of 2021 and the replanning of the residential area was assigned to someone else. After all, there was still a schedule in place at the time, according to which construction should begin at the end of 2023 and be completed in 2027.
The building area of Vaterstetten Northwest after last year’s replanning.
(Photo: community of Vaterstetten/oh)
We are a long way from that now. In the most recent municipal council meeting, the administration presented updated plans for the project, so there are now 152 apartments. At the same time, however, the administration suggested taking the project completely out of the planning and putting it on a new waiting list to be set up. According to Brigitte Littke, head of the building authority, only the land use planning should continue, so that if money is available again, work can begin immediately.
The construction area disappears completely from the financial planning of the coming years
This meant that Vaterstetten Northwest would not appear in any of the upcoming budgets or in the financial planning. Which would definitely have an impact there. Because, as treasurer Markus Porombka calculated at the meeting, after deducting all subsidies, the municipality would have to raise around 20.8 million euros itself. And that’s only because the property, although already owned by the community, is valued as equity by the funding agencies.
In view of these sums and against the background of the general economic crisis, Mayor Leonhard Spitzauer (CSU) campaigned for the housing project to be removed from the ongoing planning: “We should wait and see how the situation develops.” That’s why he also advocated the introduction of a waiting list, such as the Ebersberg district has been using for years in its project planning. Spitzauer indicated that the community settlement will not remain the only project on this list.
There were regrets about this action in the committee, but no dissenting votes. “It’s a pity, but there’s no other way,” said Katrin Pumm, summing up the Greens’ opinion. Josef Mittermeier (SPD) called the development “annoying”, his parliamentary colleague Annika Deutschmann once again pointed out the lack of skilled workers in the day-care center area, “if we want to keep staff, we need more apartments”. Klaus Willenberg (FDP) suggested considering options for implementing the project “outside the municipal budget”, for example entrusting a cooperative.