There’s trouble in the Olympic Village – there’s talk of a “new Olypark eyesore” on the bulletin board on the residents’ website. The bone of contention is the parking lot for the new sports campus of the Technical University of Munich and for the Central University Sports (ZHS) area in the ensemble-protected Olympic Park.
The car parking area is currently being created in place of the old outdoor sports area with a grandstand near the corner of Kusocinskidamm and Kolehmainenweg. According to the plans on the website of the Bregenz architectural firm Dietrich/Untertrifaller Architekten, which designed the campus together with Balliana Schubert Landschaftsarchitekten AG from Zurich, there will be around 170 parking spaces in 16 rows.
“The Olydörflers are all horrified,” comments Susanne Schraud, who lived in the neighboring residential area with its terraced houses for a long time. She asks the question: “Why are they allowed to pave over everything?” And Maya Reiner expects “an unsightly heat island” through the parking lot. The architect wants to know “why an institution that is, firstly, dedicated to movement and, above all, has a direct subway connection, needs to be upgraded in terms of parking space in such a way.” She added three question marks to her chat post on the Olydorf website. In fact, the Olympiazentrum train station is a good 800 meters away from this corner of the ZHS site, and the Oberwiesenfeld train station is just under a kilometer away.
“The parking space statutes must be adhered to,” is Markus Andris’ answer, referring to the city’s requirements. Andris is also responsible for the TU as a division manager at the Munich 2 State Building Authority. The authority represents the Ministry of Science in the campus project as the developer. He explains that there will by no means be any additional parking spaces. In fact, the number of parking spaces will be significantly reduced compared to before, also because of the proximity to the subway.
There are a total of 189 parking spaces, most of them in the area in the southeast corner of the almost 35 hectare site, which the neighbors are currently taking exception to. An additional row of parking spaces will be created north of the old prevention center. When everything is finished, the current temporary parking spaces will no longer be available.
In addition, according to Andris, the new parking spaces have also been coordinated with the monument protection department, which has a say in the ensemble protection for the entire Olympic Park. And they would not be paved with asphalt, but rather provided with grass pavers. “So the area is green and the water can seep away.”
The conversion of the ZHS site led to protests years ago: in 2011, it was originally planned to move the entire facility to the north during the new building and to also make it accessible from the north, from Moosacher Strasse. Then the access road would have cut through the park area and the sports club training grounds to the north. Ultimately, the original ZHS location was rebuilt and access – including to the unpopular parking spaces – was planned from the south, from the Mittlerer Ring.