Life is not a request concert.
This also applies to local politics.
City councilors sometimes tend to have exaggerated expectations of investors.
Especially when it comes to supposed prime properties.
The result is disappointment and stagnation.
The former headquarters of the state wineries is a deterrent example of this, even if it is not owned by Eltville.
The state winery moved to the new building on the Steinberg 15 years ago, leaving behind a winding wasteland in Eltville.
It took six years for the state to find a buyer for the allegedly so attractive property who tried to fulfill the overburdened wishes of the municipality.
But even after the long-awaited transaction, little or nothing happened.
The Iraqi investor apparently thought it would be easier to realize an ambitious project in the area of tension between monument protection and fire protection.
There is hope again
It is a scandal that the district building inspectorate remained largely inactive for years, that a cultural asset was inadequately protected against vandalism and nocturnal "visitors", and that after the arson in 2015 rain and snow were able to continue to destroy the building fabric unhindered. There are legal instruments for precisely this case. As with the Hilchenhaus in Lorch, for whose security the district jumped into the breach with taxpayers' money to prevent the cultural asset from collapsing after the investor's insolvency. There was nothing comparable in Eltville.
This chapter is finally over.
A new owner has been found who appears to be approaching the project with a realistic assessment, many years of experience in the region and the necessary staying power.
A hotel that politicians had long wanted is off the table.
In any case, it would be the wrong location in a region where overnight guests prefer to see the Rhine or the vineyards from their room and not an access road.
The burned ruins are a wound in urban development that has remained open for too long.
The city councilors would do well to support the new planning process.
You can be happy that there is hope again for a largely destroyed cultural monument.