If you don’t move with the times, you move with the times: To keep the company in Aichach In order to position itself for the future, Bavaria-Mühle, Dorfner Aktienmühle, is planning to increase its production capacities. There is not a lot of space on the existing site between Donauwörther and Bahnhofstrasse, especially adjacent to the residents around it – which is why critical voices regarding noise protection were raised in the building committee. Another sticking point: the change in the development plan.
The aim of the expansion is to increase the current production volume from 290 tonnes to 450 tonnes per day. For this, the mill does not need any structural changes or even further sealing of areas, said managing director Susanne Dorfner in front of the building committee: “We just need new machines.” A statement from Bavaria Mill shows that the expansion of capacity technically requires the elimination of so-called bottlenecks is necessary. In addition, additional roller mills are to be installed and some conveyor systems and drives are to be replaced.
Bavaria-Mühle: Management wants to focus on noise protection based on “what is desired”
Building committee members such as Marc Sturm (FWG) and Marion Zott (Greens) were concerned about the noise nuisance for residents in the immediate vicinity. A point that the management in the person of Susanne Dorfner and Simon Fronhofer has had on their agenda for years. The mill managers therefore invested in noise protection, Dorfner said: “We have tried incredibly hard over the past few years to contain the noise from the mill, in my opinion successfully.” She listed bricked-up windows, installed dampers and noise barriers as measures. The efforts would also apply to the new project: “When it comes to noise protection, we focus on what is desired.”
There is further potential for conflict in the Federal Immission Control Act, which regulates protection against harmful environmental impacts such as noise. Once the mill produces more than 300 tons per day, the operation would have to be licensed under this law. As things stand, this is not possible because the Bavaria Mill is located in an industrial area – where no permits under the Federal Immission Control Act are possible. The solution that representatives of the district office and the Aichach city administration developed in July: to change the development and land use plan and to designate the area as a so-called “other special area” in the future.
Bavaria-Mühle has to grow with the industry – perhaps somewhere else?
This would allow the city of Aichach to expand the mill as needed without creating building rights for other companies with significant environmental impacts. At the same time, the designation as another special area is accompanied by a final catalog that determines how the area may be used. Georg Robert Jung (FWG) expressed concerns: “I am always happy to help the mill and have done so in recent years. But I am against the special area.” This would open up the location in the long term to even more options for changes than have been requested so far. Jung therefore suggested relocating the mill “where it can grow freely. This is simply not possible indefinitely here at this location.”
It is probably inevitable for the Bavaria Mill that it has to grow: The new mill plans are the result of a development that has been progressing for years. In 2020 and 2021, the mill expanded its storage capacity in the form of numerous silos, invested in a new flourless loading system, and in 2021 the then Aktienmühle also merged with the Dorfner Mühle from Wolferszell in the Straubing-Bogen district to form today’s “Bavaria-Mühle Dorfner Aktienmühle”. As Simon Frohnhofer explained, the Bavaria mill is one of fewer than 180 mills throughout Germany that have a production capacity of more than 1,000 tons per year. Susanne Dorfner said: “The industry is getting bigger and bigger. And we have to grow with it, otherwise we will no longer exist at some point.” With three votes against, the building committee decided to recommend that the city council change the development and land use plan.
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Dominik Durner
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Aichach
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Bahnhofstrasse
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