A pile of wood: Hundreds of trees are expected to give way along Gotthardstrasse in January 2022 to make room for the construction work to extend the U5 from Laimer Platz to the future Willibaldstrasse station and on to Pasing. It has not yet been clarified whether the trunks actually fall or are partially replanted. As the municipal horticulture has now communicated to the Laim district committee on request, “the tree population affected is currently being recorded as part of an expert study”.
The government of Upper Bavaria approved all three sections of the subway extension (Willibaldstrasse / AmKnie / Pasing Bahnhof) in the spring and the funding also seems to have been in place since the Federal Ministry of Transport promised the corresponding funding at the beginning of August. The large-scale project is thus probably in the towel, but it has one flaw for a number of residents and many nature conservationists: In the course of the construction work, more than 700 trees are to be felled along Gotthardstrasse, according to the original plan.
However, the city authorities have recently been examining whether and to what extent the transplantation of individual trees is sensible and possible. At least that’s what municipal horticulture has just let the members of the Laim district committee know. “In addition to the vitality of the trees, it is also crucial whether a transplant is technically possible.” As soon as the investigation is completed, the district committee will be informed and informed of the further course of action.
In August, the committee asked for it in the person of its chairman Josef Mögele (SPD). If you will, an initiative by the Greens from the committee sent him on his way. In August, they wanted to submit an urgency request to the point and call on the horticultural department of the building department to transplant as many trees as possible along Gotthardstrasse instead of cutting them down. However, the majority from the SPD and CSU had opposed the formal request and instead asked Mögele for personal intervention – the Greens agreed on the content. And now there is no longer any need to submit the old application after the fact that the authority’s informal response to the committee has now been received – this was the argument made by the SPD / CSU majority at the most recent meeting; the administrative effort and the associated costs can be saved.
There is a lack of understanding among the piqued Greens as the strongest parliamentary group in the round, who, with their motion, have dripped off the SPD / CSU majority in the committee for the second time. The “unofficial answer” lacks binding force, so the fear of Christian Hartranft (Greens), the chairman of the subcommittee on mobility. Of course, he couldn’t do anything with this argument. With the new term of office and changed majorities, the Laim district committee has moved in, which was frowned upon many electoral terms before: formalistic wrangling despite agreement in terms of content.