No gravel is mined in the forest box after all. The city of Munich announced this on Wednesday. The municipal Heiliggeistspital Foundation, which owns 9.5 hectares in the forest on the western outskirts of the city, and a Neuried gravel mining company canceled the lease by mutual agreement at the end of May. Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) is pleased: “This is very good news for the preservation of the forest,” he is quoted as saying in the message from the town hall, “not only for local recreation, but also for environmental protection.”
The contract was signed in June 2021. This was preceded by a long-term tendering process from which Gebrüder Huber Bodenrecycling GmbH emerged as the winner. The city council’s decision was accompanied by fierce debates over the question of whether several hectares of forest should be sacrificed for gravel quarrying in times of the climate crisis. The Greens and SPD in particular found it very difficult to make the decision, which they were legally forced to make. In the days leading up to the vote, around 30 climate activists occupied the forest.
Due to the legal framework, the company had to be awarded the contract at the time, according to the city in the current announcement. According to the assessment of the government of Upper Bavaria, the social committee of the city council was obliged to act in the interests of the Heiliggeistspital Foundation because the politicians should form the foundation council and vote in the interests of the foundation.
Ultimately, a letter from the government was decisive for the approval: In it she points out that the city councilors had already decided in 2014 in their function as a foundation body to “initiate a lease of the foundation property for the purpose of gravel extraction in the forest box”. In the event of a withdrawal, the foundation would have faced “economic damage”, and claims for recourse against the responsible city councilors could not have been ruled out.
Now, according to the city, “changed framework conditions” are the reason for the quiet cancellation of the contract: In the meantime, it is questionable whether the gravel quarrying can still be approved at all. According to the city, a continuation of the contract “no longer makes sense” for both parties. Mayor Reiter says: “Now what seemed impossible in the meantime has been achieved,” he is quoted as saying in the message from the town hall. One could also secure the purpose of the foundation for the Heiliggeistspital without gravel mining.