conversion
“Our objection is not directed against people”: Thurklinik calls for the use of the planned refugee center in Uzwil to be stopped
A refugee home is to be built in the Marienfried senior center in Uzwil. The Thurklinik is now asking for a planning permission process to be carried out and for the use to be stopped until then.
The Marienfried house of the Zweckverband Seniorenzentrum Uzwil will be available to the TISG as accommodation for refugees from next year.
The municipality of Uzwil has been planning a refugee home in the recently closed Marienfried senior citizens’ center since the beginning of January. The Zweckverband Seniorenzentrum Uzwil, as owner of the Marienfried house, has concluded a rental agreement with the association for integration projects in St. Gallen (TISG).
The immediate promoter, the Thurklinik – housed in the other part of the Marienfried house – is now asking the municipality to start a planning permission procedure and to stop using it until the procedure is complete, according to a press release. Also, the mayor of Uzwil is expected to go on strike.
“For the smallest structural interventions that could affect a neighbor, a building permit procedure with the possibility of opposition is required today,” Wiler’s lawyer Raphael Fisch said in the statement. “It cannot be that my client has to find out from the newspaper that the municipality of Uzwil wants to create an asylum center out of a quiet old people’s home. In the immediate vicinity of a clinic and within a month. »
The client is the gynecologist Hossein Schams, owner of the Thurklinik. The lawyer submitted a written application to the municipality of Uzwil before Christmas, requesting that “the normal building permit procedure for the planned conversion of the property (…) must be carried out”. A ban on use should be issued until the legally binding conclusion is reached, as is usual in cases without an existing building permit.
Thurklinik is the second largest private clinic in the canton of St. Gallen.
The conversion leads to the doubling of the capacity
The reason given for the request is that the capacity will be doubled with the conversion. Up to 116 people, mainly young Afghans, are now to be housed where up to 58 elderly people previously led a quiet life. “It is a massive change of use, which must also have structural consequences, such as the expansion of infrastructure or the creation of escape routes”, continues the lawyer.
Furthermore, Thurklinik, as a direct promoter, did not have the opportunity to take its own measures regarding the operating concept, noise protection or safety with such short delivery times.
“Our objection is not aimed at people who should move there,” says Jasmin Schams, owner representative of the Thurklinik. “My father is from Iran, the neighboring country of Afghanistan.” Hossein Schams, who took over the clinic in 1997, recently traveled to his home country and brought medical equipment and medicines.
The mayor should resign
The Schams family has little sympathy for the Uzwil authorities and especially the mayor Lucas Keel, they say. “My client feels taken by surprise and faced with a fait accompli,” says attorney Raphael Fisch. “It is an open secret in Uzwil that both parties are interested in the former retirement home, which was part of the clinic.” The Thurklinik would like to implement an extension of its medical offer to a regional health centre, the municipality a school building in the medium term.
Another thing amazes the lawyer in this case: “You rarely see a community approach the canton and offer it an asylum centre, most resist”.
Furthermore, the clinic owner’s lawyer complained in his letter that the mayor of Uzwil appeared in a dual role: “Keel was chairman of the special association of the Uzwil Senior Citizens Center, landowner of the Marienfried retirement home. The his deputy on the city council, Ruedi Müller, is currently the president of the purpose association.There is a conflict of interest, which is why the presentation demands that the two resign from their roles as President and Vice-President of the Building Commission. (pd/mas)
