The Hachinger Tal plays an important role in the fresh air supply of Munich and the neighboring communities. But the city of Munich and the municipality of Neubiberg have been pursuing the plan to build in the area for a long time. The state capital is primarily concerned with housing, Neubiberg with commercial settlements on the so-called chapel field, the open spaces north of the Infineon Campeon. In order to see how the function of air exchange paths could be impaired by individual construction projects, the city commissioned a microclimate-ecological report. The Munich planning department presented the results of the draft this week at an online conference, including local councils from Neubiberg and Unterhaching, district committee members, representatives of the citizens’ initiative “Fresh air supply for Munich” and affected property owners.
Those involved followed the performance with great interest. Above all Neubiberg’s Mayor Thomas Pardeller (CSU), who mentions as a central finding: “A development of the chapel field is possible.” Meanwhile, members of the citizens’ initiative and the Unterhachinger Grünen municipal councilor Claudia Köhler are still of the opinion that the chapel field should remain undeveloped. The Greens, SPD, CSU and Free Voters in the Munich City Council are also in favor of extending the so-called park mile between Trudering and Neuperlach beyond the Hachinger Tal and the Kapellenfeld to the Perlacher Forest. In the “densely built-up south-east of Munich”, cross-municipal planning is “absolutely essential” for “urban planning and green planning aspects” as well as for reasons of climate protection and the preservation of fresh air routes, according to the application made on Thursday.
According to the participants, the report considers various planning cases, such as a development with apartments on Unterhachinger Strasse on the Munich side and a development on the chapel field, which belongs to the multi-billion dollar family conglomerate Finck and Winterstein. According to Pardeller, in Neubiberg there is the idea of locating businesses in the southern part of the chapel field, while creating a landscaped park in the northern part, which is used for recreation. According to the report, the trees planned there would even “bring an improvement in terms of temperature development,” said Neubiberg’s mayor. After all, it is currently only a field.
Neubiberg’s Mayor Thomas Pardeller (CSU) relies on a joint solution with the city of Munich.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
According to Pardeller, however, in the case of development, care must be taken to ensure that the cold air volume flow on the chapel field is impaired as little as possible. However, this can be taken into account by the arrangement of the buildings, also by their height and width. “I was surprised that you should build higher rather than wider,” says the mayor. As far as Alpine pumping is concerned, i.e. the thermally driven air exchange system between the Alps and the Munich gravel plain, which is so important for the supply of fresh air, according to the report, according to Pardeller, no negative regional effects are to be expected. Of course, when building, you have to observe all the specifications of the report, and the climate targets must also be met, according to the head of the Neubiberg town hall, who next wants to inform the municipal council. Despite the municipality’s planning sovereignty, Pardeller continues to rely on inter-municipal action: “Now it’s time to find a solution with Munich.”
After the presentation of the results, the citizens’ initiative still wishes to refrain from building on the open spaces north of Infineon. “It was surprising to us what a central function the chapel field has, it has an impact on all planned cases,” says Thomas Kiesmüller, spokesman for the initiative. The field is an area where cold air is produced and is responsible for feeding the main stream. Kiesmüller therefore still considers “no development” to be the best idea. He is also not convinced by levers such as a certain arrangement or the height of buildings. “Regardless of which special structural measure is taken, the cold air volume flow is always weakened.”
Kiesmüller also points out that the report only considers the current climate situation, but that a significant increase in temperatures is to be expected in the coming years. He advocates pulling together inter-communally, as Pardeller proposes. The Unterhachinger Grünen municipal councilor and member of the state parliament, Köhler, also points out that the report does not take into account “that it is getting hotter and hotter”. She also understood the comments on the chapel field to mean that it would be good to leave it as undeveloped as possible because of its function as an area where cold air is produced. In the case of a development there, effects on the development itself are to be expected. “Remodeling and on-site cooling would be a lot more expensive than the business tax you could collect,” she says.
In his own words, Köhler also took away from the presentation that development would very well have supra-local effects. Therefore, the project must be solved inter-municipal. “The times are over when the neighboring municipality simply puts a commercial or residential area in front of you.” In this respect, the Greens welcome the fact that the Unterhachinger municipal councils were invited to the conference.
The Unterhachinger Grünen municipal councilor Claudia Köhler is still against any development of the chapel field.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
The Unterhaching town hall is also looking with interest at the results of the report and the conference last Wednesday. “We have seen what the Neubiberg municipality is planning, of course it has its own planning authority,” says town hall spokesman Simon Hötzl, who took part in the presentation. “But we also rely on inter-municipal cooperation.” Topics such as the development of the property have to be coordinated with each other. With a view to its own construction projects, specifically the planned commercial area in the north of Unterhaching east of the road at the sports park, Hötzl sees no obstacle in the way of the report. “We took away that a development in the north of Unterhaching is relevant for the formation of the cold air volume flow, but can be compensated for.” If it is possible for Neubiberg to build on the hitherto unsealed chapel field with buildings 28 meters high, then building 16 meters high buildings must also be safe given the microclimatic parameters that have already been taken into account.
As far as the housing development on Unterhachinger Strasse envisaged by Munich is concerned, the participants have meanwhile heard that the appraisers are critical of it. However, it will probably take some time before the final microclimate-ecological report is available. In addition, it must first be presented to the Munich City Council.