The planned development of the Lidl car park on Mainzer Landstrasse in the Gallus district of Frankfurt is causing controversy.

The discounter on the one hand and the planning department and the Greens in the local council on the other have different opinions on how the site should be designed.

The company had already presented a first draft of its plans in 2018.

Accordingly, the one-storey branch is to give way to a building complex with a Lidl supermarket on the ground floor and 110 apartments that the company wants to build together with the municipal ABG.

Rainer Schulz

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The plans have now been presented to the local council.

Two buildings are to be erected on the approximately 7700 square meter site.

The front building houses the new Lidl branch and around 40 apartments.

A parking lot is created in the courtyard, which is followed by the second building along Lahnstraße, which is apparently intended to be erected by the ABG.

This purely residential building will house 63 apartments.

Coverage of parking spaces

The parliamentary group spokesman for the Greens, Alexander Mitsch, finds the construction project "overall positive".

However, Lidl rejects suggestions for a better design of the parking lot.

"We are calling for the parking spaces to be covered and for an attractive, usable and climate-friendly roof garden to be created with shrubs and small trees," says Mitsch.

The guidelines and statutes of the city provide for this anyway.

He cites the new building project on the opposite side of Mainzer Landstrasse as a positive example.

A new complex has been built there, with an Aldi and a Rewe supermarket on the ground floor, apartments on the upper floors and an underground car park, whose green roof forms the inner courtyard of the residential complex.

Mitsch is of the opinion that the unsealing and intensive greening of floor and roof areas as well as appropriate noise protection in the neighborhood are commonplace these days.

This also increases the attractiveness of the building.

He accuses the dealer of not taking the interests of local residents and climate protection seriously.

Personal interests and a quick realization of the project seemed to be more important.

The planning department also considers the Lidl project to be improvable.

"We don't want an undeveloped parking lot, but a clever open space planning," says the spokesman.

Because unlike what is now common in such projects, Lidl apparently insists on a ground-level customer car park instead of putting the parking spaces in an underground car park under the ground.

The spokesman for the planning department also refers to the exemplary project in the neighborhood.

It shows that the days of free-standing, single-storey supermarkets are over.

According to ABG managing director Frank Junker, his company is not involved in the conflict.

The issue is the parking lot.