An uproar broke out in the Sauerlach municipal council on Tuesday evening, which is likely to fuel the debate about the construction of the new high school and the associated development. During the citizens’ question time, Matthias Zwiener, who was present as a listener, revealed that the municipality is apparently in negotiations about the purchase of another, alternative piece of land for the secondary school. Mayor Barbara Bogner (Independent Citizens’ Association, UBV) confirmed this, but harshly criticized the fact that sensitive information from non-public meetings of the municipal council on property negotiations had been leaked.
So far, the focus in the public debate on the construction of a new high school has been exclusively on the area north of Hofoldinger Straße in the east of Sauerlach. An investor is planning to build a completely new district there, in which, in addition to the new school, a medical center, sports fields, a day-care center and, above all, residential buildings are to be built. Although there is agreement in the municipal council on the construction of the grammar school, there are different opinions, especially on the extent of the residential development. Last but not least, City Hall boss Bogner has repeatedly made it clear that she is critical of the creation of new living space for possibly more than a thousand people. The CSU in the municipal council had therefore recently accused her of scaremongering and hesitation because the negotiations with the property owner and investor had not yet been completed.
The alternative that has now become public could bring a completely new dynamic to the urban planning discussion. Zwiener, who claims to act as a whistleblower himself, is no stranger to this. Already in the discussion about the construction of a crematorium in the community, he had created a mood against the project, among other things with a homepage, and also founded a citizens’ initiative. His efforts were not unsuccessful: the municipal council stopped the project in September last year, contrary to its initial approval.
This time, too, Zwiener has set up a homepage and collects information there, from “first hand”, as he claims on the site. There you can also see a map on which Zwiener has marked an alternative location for the new high school – namely on a piece of land north of the main town of Sauerlach on Otterloher Straße. In the municipal council, he criticized that switching to another location would delay the construction of the high school considerably. “Going into a new plan is not expedient,” said Zwiener. “I would like the high school to go ahead, because it is a prestige object for the community.”
“Such actions will tend to increase distrust”
The appearance of the self-proclaimed whistleblower was sometimes extremely irritated in the municipal council. UBV councilor Götz von Borries said that the committee would not allow itself to be put under any pressure: “Such actions will tend to increase distrust. And the whole thing will not be accelerated if you want to show us that way.” According to Borries, it is clearly regulated what is discussed publicly in a municipal council and what is discussed behind closed doors. “Public participation begins when certain decisions are made, but not when someone like you opens a demagogic homepage.”
The head of the town hall, Bogner, did not want to specify which plot of land the alternative location would be, precisely because negotiations were still ongoing. She will speak very soon with the investor for the Sauerlach-Ost development area and also with the owner of another area. “If you have several plots of land available, you have to decide on one. And only the municipal council does that,” said the mayor. She received support from Green Party Councilor Wolfgang Büsch. “It’s important to realize that it’s a very important decision for the town, and we want to weigh it up carefully,” Sauerlach’s third mayor said to Zwiener.
“All party programs say that we want to develop the place carefully. But in a few years the high school will be there – and then it will only be important where it is.” Because the decision that Sauerlach gets a high school has long been made. Approval from the Ministry of Education for a secondary school has been available since February last year.