Anyone who digs a pit for the community of Zorneding will not fall into it themselves, but it will be much more difficult in the future than was previously the case. At least that has been certain since Thursday evening, when the municipal council rejected two corresponding applications from mining companies – a novelty. Up until now, the committee had to grudge its teeth, but without real action, when a company wanted to transform several thousand square meters of community space into a crater landscape. But that should finally be the end of it, which should be happy not least for many citizens of Zornedingen.
Because the mining areas are mainly in the southern municipal area, an area that is very popular with walkers and cyclists. In view of the sandy pits in some places, however, you can ask the question whether you are still on earth or already on the moon – not to mention the volume of traffic caused by the trucks required for dismantling.
The new pit is to be 76,000 square meters in size and 30 meters deep
A new building project would aggravate the situation in the south of Zornedingen for all nature lovers: the municipality has received an application for a building permit from a Moosach company that wants to make a 76,000 square meter area usable for gravel mining south of federal highway 304 along the forest area. The pit is supposed to be around 30 meters deep, and six trucks per hour would transport the raw material along Wolfersberger Strasse. “The gravel pit serves to supply the southern district with gravel,” says the company’s application, which seems to be dependent on the award in Zorneding. Because she continues to write: “The gravel pit is urgently needed to secure jobs and the future of the company.”
On the part of the community, however, the company can apparently not hope for too much sympathy – because the local council rejected the project on Thursday without a dissenting vote. Such a decision would have been unthinkable until recently, as gravel mining is considered a privileged project. This means that corresponding applications in the community outside area can actually be approved without major hurdles. The decisions about whether a new mining area should be designated are not made by the municipalities themselves, but by the Ebersberg district office. The municipality only needs to be involved in the procedure – but without having an actual right of veto.
The municipal council is pulling the emergency brake this year
Unless one had determined in advance in a zoning plan which areas are eligible for gravel extraction and which are not. There is such a plan in Zorneding, but so far it has given the companies too much freedom. In June of this year, the municipal council finally pulled the emergency brake and commissioned the Munich planning association to change the land use plan. In November, the committee followed up and formulated clear exclusion criteria that should ultimately determine the areas in the municipality in which concentration areas for gravel mining can arise.
The experts in Munich are still working on the new zoning plan – which is also the reason for the negative decision of the municipal council. “It should first be seen what comes out of it,” said Mayor Piet Mayr (CSU) in the meeting. Until then, the mining companies at the municipal council will probably grit their teeth.
A second company from Neuried felt this on Thursday, which wants to identify a mining area in the western municipal area. Since this is initially a preliminary decision, the exact size of the area has not yet been determined. In any case, the gravel obtained should be used for gardening, landscaping and road construction, as the company writes in its application. But this company will also have to be patient, because the municipal council initially rejected this project unanimously, also referring to the ongoing changes to the land use plan.