Pullach – Agenda for citizens’ requests against United Initiators – District of Munich
The local Agenda 21 supports the second attempt by the citizens’ initiative “Protect the Isar floodplains” to bring down the expansion plans of the chemical company United Initiators (UI) in Pullach by referendum. At the same time, the Isar Valley Association has once again positioned itself clearly against a massive expansion of industrial development opportunities on the company premises.
As part of public participation, Agenda 21 – like a number of other associations – have again spoken out against an expansion of the production of peroxides, according to a press release by Agenda spokesman Peter Kloeber. “And in our opinion, this is exactly what the group will be able to do thanks to the changes to the development plan that are currently expected to be made by the municipal administration.” The Agenda spokesman raises widespread concerns about the plans, such as the citizens’ initiative, which will soon be collecting signatures for the citizens’ petition “Stop urban land use planning on Dr.-Gustav-Adolph-Strasse” for the second time, after having failed in a first attempt thus failed in court. “We also think that the citizens should have the last word on this question, which may also be controversial in the municipal council. In the sense of public participation, which is invoked on all sides, the democratic process of a citizens’ petition should not be a problem in Pullach either, especially since this democratic instrument is already in use in Pullach was used for far less drastic projects,” says the press release.
According to the group, the doubling of the production of explosive hazardous substances, which has already been approved by the Munich District Office, combined with a correspondingly increased pollutant output and enormous CO₂ emissions, cannot be in the interest of the Pullach population. For this reason, the Agenda also requested in its statement that the change in the development plan would not lead to an increase in the industrially usable floor space and building mass and that the forest area of around 18,000 square meters intended for clearing in the south of the factory premises be rededicated and preserved from industrial area to forest area will. They also reject the planned increase, in some cases even the doubling of the permissible height of new industrial plants and the permission to develop right up to the factory boundary.
The power consumption corresponds to the production of 20 to 30 wind turbines
For reasons of climate protection, the agenda calls for a rapid conversion of the plant’s power supply from natural gas to renewable energy sources. With 150,000 megawatt hours a year, the group consumes as much electricity as about all private households in the city of Augsburg put together, which corresponds to the equivalent of 20 to 30 wind turbines, and correspondingly more with the doubling of production requested by the group. The Pullach climate goals are definitely not achievable without this change.
The immission control approval process at the Munich district office has not yet been completed, as the municipality of Pullach has not yet taken a position on the requested increase in production and storage capacities. “We expect that the municipal council will speak out against such a massive increase in the requested production volume for the reasons given,” explains Kloeber.
Meanwhile, the Isar Valley Association also spoke out clearly against United Initiators’ expansion plans, as can be seen in a letter from its chairman Martin Kiechl to the citizens’ initiative. By increasing the industrially usable building area by 26,000 square meters, higher emission values would be achieved than previously permitted. Kiechl speaks of a massive expansion of the possibility of building chemical production plants at the less than a kilometer long interface between two landscape or FFH areas (Isar Valley and Forstenrieder Park). The connecting bridge function would be permanently and irretrievably destroyed because of the legally permissible realization of the structure and facilities.