The community of Vaterstetten has big plans – some of which have been going on for years: numerous projects are on the agenda, with geothermal energy only being added in July as the most recent. A project that has also been waiting for implementation for more than two years should now finally make progress: the prioritization of major projects. Mayor Leonhard Spitzauer (CSU) announced this shortly after taking office in May 2020, and he has now declared that the topic should be dealt with in the municipal council after the summer break.
The list of projects that still have to be done in Vaterstetten is traditionally long – and has been getting longer and longer for years. Several of them can be found, so to speak, within sight of the head of the town hall. On the one hand, there is the town hall itself, the more than half-century-old building is not only far too small for the municipality, which has since doubled in terms of population, but also the condition sometimes leaves a lot to be desired. Or, as the mayor himself says: “If it rains, we’ll get the buckets out again.” The reason is the leaking roof despite repeated repairs. The administration center is also quite unfavorable in terms of energy consumption, the heating costs had already been cited by Spitzauer’s predecessor in office, Robert Niedergesäß, as a reason for building a new building.
The buckets for the rainwater dripping through the roof are now part of the inventory in the town hall.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
At the time, this was embedded in another major project: the redesign of the town center of Vaterstetten – this is also still on the agenda. Since 2003 there have been two attempts to establish a real center for Vaterstetten – the first failed due to the tight finances of the community, the second to those of the investor. On both occasions, Vaterstetten was left with not inconsiderable planning costs, a total of 1.3 million euros according to an estimate from 2015.
The next attempt for a community center should be smaller
Which was not least due to the quite ambitious plans. For example, both drafts included a large event hall, draft number one also included a cinema, number two a kind of new district including residential and office buildings. The mayor is already saying that such a magnitude should be avoided when planning is resumed. Cooperation with an investor is still conceivable, perhaps the municipality would have to sell one or the other property in order to be able to pay for the project – but the scope should be much more modest and cinemas and other event halls would probably not be planned either.
The school on Wendelsteinstraße has to be renovated or rebuilt.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
Which is at least indirectly related to the second major project in the town hall’s field of vision: the Wendelstein School. Although the new construction of the gym – costing at least ten million euros – has been decided for a good year, there has been no concept for the rest of the school for years. The question of whether the now 71-year-old school building should be completely renovated or demolished – and which of these would be cheaper – also remains unanswered.
Who should build on Gluckstrasse?
The demolition of another school, on the other hand, is already certain: the elementary and middle school moved to a new building in 2019 and the old buildings on Gluckstrasse should have long since disappeared and the property should have been sold. But because the primary school now houses a kindergarten and the middle school houses the youth center, nothing came of it. Also, there is no decision yet as to whether the municipality should even sell or develop the property itself.
The future of the former school property on Gluckstrasse is still open.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
The mayor is clearly in favor of the latter option, just like with a project in northern Vaterstetten that has been planned for some time. Up to 130 affordable apartments are to be built on a community property on Dorfstrasse. Spitzauer would like to have the community build it themselves, parts of the community council and his own faction consider this too expensive, after all it is more than 50 million euros.
Geothermal energy could go online in 2025
The geothermal project decided on in July could cost at least one and a half times as much – but spread over a period of six years. The municipality wants to work with an investor on this; ideally, the first drilling could take place in two years and the grid could be fed into the grid as early as 2025.
Another project should have been at least halfway done by next year: the bypass road for the northern towns. Because only if the section near Parsdorf is “under traffic” by 2023 can the municipality collect a subsidy of 4.5 million euros agreed with the investor of the commercial area. The fact that this money is gone was openly communicated to the building committee in the spring. However, it is just as open whether the road project is done with it, there are opposing opinions from the CSU, SPD and FDP factions – that the road is not at the top of the agenda, even its biggest supporters see it that way.
The mayor says that what is on the agenda and where it needs to be discussed publicly. After the summer holidays, however, the first thing to do is how the procedure should work, which ultimately leads to the list of priorities. According to Spitzauer, it may still take a while before this is finalized, but perhaps something new about the projects can be reported at the citizens’ assembly in October.