The dispute over a new commercial area in the Upper Palatinate town of Teublitz is an example of how hardened the fronts are in the debate about surface consumption. Now he also stands for the fact that municipalities sometimes want to push through contested projects even if the highest courts have declared that they are violating the applicable law.
It is just half a year ago that the Bavarian Administrative Court (VGH) rejected the project. In the verdict, the judges not only accused the city of formal errors in the approval process. But she also wrote in the register that she violated planning and nature conservation law. But Mayor Thomas Beer (CSU) and the city councilors are not giving up. Despite the scolding of the highest court, they want to continue with the planning.
At the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV) they are appalled. The environmental organization had obtained the VGH verdict and expected that the city would say goodbye to its plans after its outcome. “Teublitz completely ignores the fact that the VGH considers the plans fundamentally unrealizable,” says LBV Managing Director Helmut Beran. “She wants to set up a commercial area in an ecologically valuable forest against all reason.”
From the point of view of the LBV, the forest on the A93 motorway, which should fall for the planning, has an important function for climate and species protection in Bavaria. The LBV appeals to the state parliament to “stop this area destruction” and not to sell the forest, which belongs to the Free State, for the industrial park. “Such plans must finally be a thing of the past,” says Beran.
For the good of the citizens
The new Teublitz industrial park is to be set up far from the city on the A93. There is an ecologically valuable mixed forest with protected moor and swamp areas, in which rare species such as the woodcock and the sand lizard live. The LBV accuses the city of sticking to the project, although numerous commercial spaces are vacant in the region.
The surface consumption is one of the most urgent environmental problems in Bavaria. In 2020, 11.4 hectares of meadows, forest, fields and other open landscapes were converted into building land for settlements, businesses, roads or other traffic routes every day. On an annual basis, this corresponds to the area of a town the size of Forchheim in Upper Franconia. The state government has set itself the goal of halving land use. But so far there are no signs that the governing coalition of the CSU and Free Voters can keep the promise.
This also has to do with the fact that many municipalities do not want to rethink and do not want to designate new building areas. “The primary goal of our actions is the well-being of the citizens of Teublitz,” says Mayor Beer, explaining why the city is continuing with the planning. This includes Beer “the creation of attractive jobs close to home”. From his point of view, there is no alternative to the location for the new commercial area on the A93. That’s why you’re sticking to the plans, even if it means a lot of additional money, time and personnel costs.