The gnarled oak on the Pasinger Mühlerweg was more than 200 years old. When she fell victim to an ax two and a half years ago, it triggered a wave of protests among local residents, despite the approval of the Lower Nature Conservation Authority. Tree felling is a hot topic in the garden-rich Pasing, and the residents of the district have been particularly committed to preserving their green oases for a long time. How much, became clear on Wednesday evening at the Pasing citizens’ meeting. A large part of the 22 applications, all of which were approved, revolved around nature conservation issues – while Munich residents in other districts are often more concerned with traffic problems.
Felling the Mühlerweg oak was a wake-up call for Monika Ermert. Since then she has been intensively committed to the trees and green spaces in Munich. Their demand: to enact development plans and conservation statutes with stricter tree protection measures. And also include younger trees with a trunk circumference of less than 80 centimeters in the Tree Protection Ordinance. “20,000 trees”, she explained on Wednesday with reference to research by the Federal Nature Conservation Agency, have “lost” the Bavarian state capital since 2011 – they were felled without replacement.
Isabella van Eeghen argued similarly. She is specifically concerned about ten old trees that are on a property at Lichtingerstraße 12 in the Pasinger forest colony and may have to give way to new buildings. The city, she requested, should ban the felling of “as many” of these green giants as possible. The fine for illegal felling would also have to be so expensive that every builder would think twice before accepting this fine.
There are rumors again about the future of the West Landscape Park
A green lung that is close to the hearts of many Munich residents is the West Landscape Park. It stretches from Willibaldstraße, where the municipal tree nursery grows young trees, through parts of Pasing, Laim and Hadern and extends into the Würmtal. According to Ruth Autenrieth and Christopher Stark, this green space, which is important as a local recreation area, a retreat for animals and a corridor for fresh air, must be protected. Autenrieth asks the municipality to “implement the city council’s decision of July 2021 to keep the park free of development as soon as possible”. Because she “had heard,” she told the meeting, that plans for new buildings on the site were already circulating again.
Previously, the Pasinger Stark had already called for more staff for the local building commission and the lower nature conservation authority in order to give the authorities the opportunity to fulfill their building inspection duties. So far, it has always been said: The piles of files on the desks are too big, you can’t send anyone. “The result is that front gardens become gravel gardens, building regulations are exceeded and trees are felled.”
When asked what she thought of Stark’s proposal, Anna Gänsbacher from the local building commission said: “I would agree to the application.” Fritz Raffelsbauer was also concerned with protecting nature. He demands more water for the old branch of the Würm in the Pasing city park and fresh water for the fish pond there, in which no fish swim anymore because it is “a stinking brown broth”.
The second major topic of the evening was education. The parents’ council of the elementary school at Schererplatz has developed a concept for a new campus together with the Elsa-Brandström-Gymnasium, for which they asked for support. “In the 2025/26 school year we will have eight more classes at the elementary school than we have now, for which we will then lack rooms, a canteen and sports halls,” predicted Leif Geuder, Chairman of the Parents’ Council.
It is therefore important to act: the conception and planning of school premises, sports halls and swimming pools as well as a location analysis are necessary. “We urgently need more swimming pools in particular to teach our children to swim.” Geuder’s previous speaker Peter Bireth had already called for a school swimming pool to be provided under the school’s double gymnasium when the Max Planck High School was renovated.