There is a dispute in Kelkheim about plans for a new development area on the eastern outskirts of the city.

The construction sites for residential buildings are planned on the east side of Königsteiner Straße south of the main cemetery, as the city councilors decided in March.

An initiative is trying to prevent the construction area with a referendum.

The group has already collected enough signatures for the citizens' petition and submitted it to the town hall.

In the next step, the city councilors have to decide on a referendum, a vote by Kelkheimers on the plans.

Alternatively, the city parliament could give in to the citizens' group and abandon the plans, in which case a vote would no longer be necessary.

Mayor Albrecht Kündiger from the independent Kelkheim voters' initiative (UKW) has already spoken out in favor of

to forego a particularly controversial part of the development area.

In his opinion, the conflict between the city parliament and the citizens' group can be solved with this compromise.

Jan Schiefenhoevel

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The “Vor dem Schlämmer” construction area has been planned since 2018.

The reallocation of the plots has not progressed well, so no construction has been done yet.

However, the new development area in the development plan decided four years ago is smaller than in the latest version, which was decided in March by the coalition of CDU, SPD and FDP.

With the most recent decision, the construction area has increased by a rectangle in the north of the planning area.

This expansion is particularly controversial and an impetus for the citizens' initiative.

On this additional area called "Schlämmer" there is a meadow orchard, i.e. partly old fruit trees, while the rest of the plan area is occupied by a meadow.

The form of the citizens' request is directed against the entire construction area, because a decision cannot only be partially attacked.

The citizens' group is committed to preserving the meadow orchard because it considers it to be ecologically valuable, as one of its spokespersons, Hans-Georg Sachs, said when the signatures were handed over.

Skip the extension

The biotope offers habitat for numerous animal and plant species, including two rare bird species.

This grown natural space must be preserved.

The area of ​​the meadow orchard, the Schlämmer, was once a wetland that is now drained by a drainage system at the main cemetery.

The area is therefore important as a flood area that can absorb water in heavy rain, said Karin Guder, who belongs to the initiative.

Kündiger said that the original smaller building area, as decided in 2018, was a good mix of single and multi-family houses for 160 to 180 families on an area of ​​a good three hectares.

The 6,000 square meter extension could be dispensed with in order to reach a compromise.

In this case, it can be built earlier.

If, on the other hand, the majority of city councilors stick to the expansion, conflicts over nature conservation on the meadow orchards could delay planning.

The mayor's party, UKW, is also opposed to the new version of the plans and supports the citizens' initiative.

The ecologically valuable meadow orchard must be protected from building, said the chairman of the UKW parliamentary group, Doris Salmon.