Off for hotel project in Mittenwald – Bavaria

The residents of Mittenwald in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district have brought down a large hotel project in their market town by referendum. Against the almost unanimous opinion in the local council, the citizens decided on Sunday with a majority of a good 57 percent that a community-owned area between the train station and the town hall should not be sold to the hotel investors.

The first hotel plans were already in place in 2009 for the approximately 11,000 square meter and currently largely undeveloped plot of land. In 2017 there was a referendum for a new indoor swimming pool and in 2018 a council motion against this swimming pool for the same area. The operators of some smaller guest houses have initiated the current referendum. In their eyes, the planned hotel would have had too urban a character for the location. In contrast, a study for the community, which is heavily dependent on tourism but suffering from steady bed loss, classified the project as acceptable. The “Deutsche Seereederei” would have wanted to build a new house of their “A-ja” hotel chain in Mittenwald, as they opened in Bavaria a few years ago in Ruhpolding and only this summer in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Another branch at Tegernsee failed in 2016 due to considerable local resistance.