Berlin is to build apartments on fast food restaurants
Burger stands and fast food restaurants often only have a ground floor. Above that there would be enough space for new apartments. This idea of the Left Party is well received by many.
dpa/Jan Woitas
McDonald’s, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Co could soon experience an interesting renovation in Berlin. In the search for living space, there are apparently no limits to the imagination. The Berlin left has now made a proposal to combat the housing shortage in the capital by building burger restaurants.
Again RBB reports, the party is thinking about adding living space to fast-food restaurants – on top of the previous roofs. The advantage: no new areas would have to be developed. The idea is already falling on open ears.
Accordingly, there are a lot of fast food restaurants in the city area that could be expanded. Lichtenberg’s district mayor Michael Grunst (left) explained to RBB that several hundred apartments could be created in his district alone through the structural expansion. Because there are up to 30 corresponding restaurants in East Berlin that have the potential for housing.
Grunst’s Lichtenberger party colleague Sebastian Schlüsselburg believes that Berlin cannot grow in width, but in height. “We’re not building inner courtyards here, we’re just using sensible potential – if the owners go along with us.”
Berlin’s building senator Geisel welcomes the idea
Berlin’s building and urban development senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) welcomes the idea. He also thinks it makes sense to build apartments on already sealed areas. You look at each location to see if it is an option, Geisel explained to the RBB.
Geisel available the proposal with the already done housing on supermarkets. The increase would add around 500 apartments per year. Although this does not solve Berlin’s housing problem, it is another important piece of the puzzle. After allegedly several “supermarket summits”, the Senate had identified housing construction potential at around 330 supermarkets in Berlin. Up to 36,000 apartments could be built on these. A response to a request from the CDU shows that around 100 projects are currently being planned or under construction, according to the RBB report.
The opposition party CDU criticizes the Senate for not using the development potential of the supermarkets sufficiently. Housing policy spokesman Dirk Stettner conceded that the fast food idea makes sense if it can be implemented in urban planning. According to the CDU politician, in this case any housing construction over a single storey would be an asset.