Berlin & Brandenburg: The Left calls for the early involvement of residents in construction projects
Berlin & Brandenburg
Linke calls for the early involvement of residents in construction projects
May 22, 2022 at 8:34 am
Berlin (dpa / bb) – From the point of view of the Berlin Left faction, residents are much too late when additional apartments are to be built in residential areas on a large scale. “Everyone agrees that we need more affordable housing,” said parliamentary group leader Carsten Schatz of the German Press Agency. “But the point is, I’ve seen this in several densification projects: the municipal housing associations approach the citizens, present them with a plan and say: “There will be 1,000 new apartments.” But that creates a situation in which many People with resistance reacted and said that it was too much for them.
Significantly greater public participation as early as the planning phase is crucial. The municipal housing associations would have to approach the residents immediately, present their projects to them and start a conversation, said Schatz. “In the end it’s faster and better.” Most tenants would then no longer react defensively, but often do so. “It should be thought-provoking when densification projects by state-owned companies increasingly have to be prepared under police protection,” said a recent decision by the Left parliamentary group.
Concepts from the time when the neighborhoods and residential complexes were created should be preserved, and the goals and meaning of projects should be discussed with the residents on an equal footing. But Schatz emphasized that this was not a fundamental change: “For us, the question of recompression is a question of how.”
On the other hand, there is a clear no to the question of whether state-owned housing companies should also build condominiums: “Not only red-red-green, but already red-black had decided to no longer privatize urban land,” Schatz. “That’s why there shouldn’t really be any discussion about the construction of condominiums by the municipal housing associations.” A sale in partial areas as condominiums is a privatization of urban land, said the parliamentary group leader. “But we ruled that out together in Berlin. The SPD has obviously changed its position if it wants to now,” said Schatz.
“I understand that the housing associations want to sell faster income and strengthen their equity. But if you have an equity problem, then you should contact us. We are willing to solve it.”