The more than a thousand signatures collected for tree protection no longer made a difference: the wall on the Munich Ring in Unterschleißheim is being removed, the 25 trees on it are being felled. SPD, CSU and Freie Bürgerschaft Unterschleißheim on Thursday evening in the city council rejected the emergency motion by the Greens by 21 votes to nine, which aimed to overturn a decision made at the end of November 2022, consequently at the new Michael-Ende elementary school instead of the wall and vegetation a forecourt with a wider footpath and cycle path is to be created. The vote was preceded by a campaign by the Greens. At the showdown in the city council, they were accused of trying to stir up public spirit.
The school building is a major project right in the center. A new one will be built next to the old school for 74 million euros. For this, some of the 146 trees have to go. The dispute ignited over trees that, from the point of view of the conservationists, “without need”, as ÖDP city councilor Bernd Knatz said, should be cut down on the road. Tino Schlagintweit (Greens) criticized that grown stock was sacrificed, only for a wider footpath and a clear view of the building. The city failed to consult the citizenry. The Greens would have made up for that with the signature campaign. “We didn’t know what was important to the citizens, the residents, the parents, the students.” Now that’s on the table.
The trees to the left of the Le Crès Bridge are felled.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
But SPD faction leader Thomas Breitenstein countered Schlagintweit that it was “not a fundamental decision for or against trees”. The SPD did not make it easy for itself. There will be a lot of green again. The trees on the wall “didn’t grow well” and would be replaced by large trees and “high-quality open space planning”. Martin Reichart (FB) also emphasized that there would be a lot of replanting. In the rear area, in the schoolyard, “at least” replacements for the felled trees will be created. Reichart accused Schlagintweit of arguing “indecently” when he stated that there was a lack of information about the school construction in the run-up to the decision in November.
The political climate is getting rougher. This can also be seen on Facebook, where the CSU accuses the Greens of “lack of decency” because on Saturday they held an information stand on tree protection parallel to the funeral of former mayor Rolf Zeitler and not far from the place of mourning on the district road. Poison darts have been flying back and forth between the CSU and the Greens for a long time. The CSU accuses the Greens of ignoring the citizens’ desire for terraced, single-family and semi-detached houses in the planned Lohhof-Süd building area. Stefan Diehl took up this and spoke of a “questionable approach” to the tree protection campaign. The Greens only accepted citizens’ votes if they suited them.
Trees or potted plants? Martin Reichart thinks that the newly planted trees look too small in the visualization of the green ones.
(Photo: Tino Schlagintweit)
The battle for trees and walls was also a battle for images. Tino Schlagintweit himself created views with and without a wall and trees on the computer so that everyone can see what is planned. Mayor Christoph Böck (SPD) surprised the city council with a view that he had created by the planners and that showed relatively high trees and lots of greenery without a wall and after the felling. Böck said that trees with a trunk circumference of 35 to 40 centimeters would be replanted, nine meters high. Schlagintweit interjected: “These are never freshly planted trees.” Reichart, on the other hand, found that the trees that had been replanted at Schlagintweit looked like “potted plants”. The FDP and AfD voted with the Greens and the ÖDP.