The people of Grafing are happy about their chic outdoor pool, are proud of their ice rink, the EHC Klostersee and in general: their sports center. Parents like to send their children to music school or adult education center, they are happy about club life, playgrounds, city park and, even if these are already compulsory tasks, lots of daycare centers. The logic of communal finance also includes: Those who live big, need a large wallet. The Grafingen wallet tends to be a little smaller – which is why the city council made a surcharge on Tuesday for a large-scale search for new commercial space.
“We just have to look at the trade tax revenues from comparable cities like Ebersberg or Wasserburg,” said the initiator of the application, FDP city councilor Claus Eimer. “Ours is by far the least. And that will soon hinder our development enormously.”
The background to this is that the business tax of the local companies flows directly into the city budget. More business therefore usually means more money. “We have long since seen an unchecked boom in residential development,” argued Eimer. The people here also have to work, or do we want to become a dormitory city? “The few commercial spaces that are still available are primarily in private hands. So the city has no influence on them. In short:” I want us to think about it now, because the process until new areas can be occupied takes years! “
The fact that Mayor Christian Bauer (CSU), as a former treasurer, sees things little differently, came as no surprise. “I very much agree with the proposal, it is exactly the right one. Anyone who works in Grafing and does not go to Munich is kind to the climate.”
In the past, too little commercial space had been designated. You shouldn’t make the same mistake again. “That’s one thing we should be up front on.” It is important to him: “That a new commercial development happens in a space-saving way.”
Ultimately, the city is facing major considerations, said Christian Kerschner-Gehrling (SPD). “What do we want to sacrifice, which business do we want? It is important to me: What do we put on the valuable space. I have no problem with a well-planned new business park.” He suggested a city council meeting in which criteria should be worked out.
However, there were also less benevolent perspectives at the meeting, such as that of Walter Schmidtke (Bavaria party). “A new industrial park is not automatically a new cash cow,” he said. Before an industrial park generates money, the city must first put a lot into it. “I just can’t see the time pressure here.”
Hermann Maier (Greens) was concerned with the basics. “The times in which industrial parks were simply built on green fields are over!” First of all, inner-city areas would have to be used – for example behind the driving school in Rosenheimer Straße, the parking lot behind “Mode Bald” or west of Grafing Bahnhof behind the parking lots.
The question is, however, agreed Mayor Bauer and applicant Eimer: Which of these areas are actually available? “If that’s private space, we can’t just come here as a city and turn it into an industrial park,” warned the mayor.
Bucket, in turn, held out his hand in the direction of Green. He doesn’t really care where the city identifies new commercial space – as long as it identifies some. Ultimately, this became the bridge to the unanimous decision: The town hall breaks down all conceivable new commercial areas to the city council. This is followed by the city council meeting – and then a decision on conceivable city center densities or the development of the so-called potential areas along the eastern bypass and north of Münchner Straße.
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