It is a sentence that Sauerlach’s mayor Barbara Bogner (independent citizens’ association) has not yet expressed with this clarity – and which could have a lasting effect when it comes to the development of the place. If there is now the possibility, Bogner said on Tuesday evening in the municipal council, of getting a high school in Sauerlach “with little or no residential development”, then she wants it that way. The sentence sits and leaves some of the listeners in the meeting room in the multi-purpose hall at Otterloher Feld filled to the last seat in amazement. High school yes, new apartments and the associated growth not at any price – that’s the line that Bogner draws.
The mayor is not alone with this attitude, there are major concerns in large parts of the municipal council that the new construction of a high school – which has already been approved – could start growth that would overwhelm the main town with its current 6,000 inhabitants.
Until recently, the Sauerlach-Ost area was considered the only alternative location for a grammar school.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
But the new school is not there yet. And until then, a few fundamental questions still have to be clarified anyway. First and foremost, where the grammar school is to be built: on the approximately 15-hectare site west of the S-Bahn station and north of Hofoldinger Straße, for which an investor has already submitted a plan that, in addition to the grammar school, also includes sports facilities, a daycare center and a medical center and, above all, multi-storey residential buildings. Until recently, there was no alternative to this location, also known as Sauerlach-Ost. But then it became public that the municipality was negotiating with another property owner about the acquisition of an area at the northern entrance to the town on Otterloher Straße; apparently confidential information from closed meetings of the municipal council was leaked.
The CSU smells displeasure against the school
The fact that the municipal council came together for a special session on Tuesday was due to a motion by the CSU parliamentary group, which finally wanted to clarify the location issue – and also has no problem with the obvious indiscretion. It is welcome, said CSU parliamentary group spokesman Michael Hohenleitner, that this development in the question of the location for a high school is finally openly transparent. In their application, however, the Christian Socialists demanded that all efforts for an alternative location on Otterloher Straße be stopped immediately and that the construction of the high school at the Sauerlach-Ost location be “implemented with vigour”.
Hohenleitner said that anyone who does not agree to the application will also vote against the grammar school, since the location in the north is “not a real alternative”. His parliamentary colleague Markus Hoffmann said he was increasingly suspecting that parts of the municipal council were “unwilling” to actually realize the high school: “The alternative location is simply an emergency exit, you could have done that in 2017, but now that actually everything has to be planned, it doesn’t make sense anymore.”
According to Hoffmann, anyone who is now pursuing an alternative location accepts not getting a high school at all. “We want it where it is most planned,” said the Sauerlach CSU boss. “And of course, the topic of living is far from over.” However, the number of up to 1000 new residents in Sauerlach-Ost is still in the room, who, according to the investor’s plans, could find new living space there – and which causes headaches and discomfort for many in the municipal council. If new residential developments come, the head of the town hall, Bogner, made it clear that they would have to be stretched. “More than five, ten, 15, 20 years. Otherwise we have too many residents, we can’t do that as a municipality.” At the same time, she made it clear that she would continue to negotiate with both property owners, but a decision on a location had not yet been made.
CSU faction leader Hohenleitner accused the mayor of being hesitant: “The residential development in Sauerlach-Ost could have been negotiated for three years. Then we wouldn’t have this horrific number of residents that we’re all afraid of.” The Christian Socialists failed with their proposal to immediately concentrate all forces on Sauerlach-Ost.