Mayor Stefan Schöfberger (SP) is now receiving better news on his desk than the news about the relocation of the large carpenter Speedmaster two years ago. “We have to bring jobs back to our community,” is the mayor’s motto. The new “Hub-Nord” of Brau-Union, which was built from scratch in the community and from which the beer trucks deliver to the inns and supermarkets in the northern part of the country, is increasing the number of employees from 90 to 135. And now Salzburg investor and real estate developer Walter Schisernig has another big fish on his hook for the Traunviertel community. Schiesering is to build a logistics center for the freight forwarder Quehenberger on a 5.4 hectare field next to the Pyhrn motorway A9, from which his drivers will drive to branches of retail chains such as “dm”.
At a project presentation, Quehenberger’s CFO Rodolphe Schoettel, who is also a co-owner of Schiesernig’s Xelor Immobilien GmbH, was also met with a very icy wind. The planned logistics center, which the real estate company is to build and Quehenberger is to operate as a tenant, is 200 meters from the nearest settlement, but not far enough to not annoy residents with fears of traffic congestion and engine noise. Schoettler announced 15 truck journeys per hour with operations running around the clock except for the weekend break. But the most serious concern for the spokespersons of the citizens’ initiative, Ingrid Hackl and Pamela Huck, is the sealing of more grassland. “Neighboring settlements are already having to contend with torrential water after heavy rain,” says Hackl.
“If not there by the motorway, where else?” asks Mayor Schöfberger in return. Since 2005, the field has been in the municipality’s “business expansion zone”, which is why the decision to rezone it as a business area for Quehenberger was made unanimously by the municipal council. In the autumn, the municipal council will decide on a new version of the zoning plan, Schöfberger announces: “It is clear to me that there will be no more new business areas, because we will only use the areas designated for them.” He is trying to strike a balance between business locations, whose municipal taxes are needed for schools, sports fields and club centers, and limited land use.
Environmental lawyer agrees
A view that is apparently also shared by the Upper Austrian Environmental Office: In a statement, it found that the high land consumption of the planned logistics center represented “a major ecological problem”, but that if green roofs, greened operational areas and solar systems were made mandatory, the industrial zone designation could be approved. The environmental lawyer’s condition is already being met with open arms by real estate developers. At the presentation, Schoettel promised an eco-construction method based on the most modern principles. And Schiesernig points out that most projects are no longer being implemented by consuming land. In Loosdorf, his company has given the central warehouse on the Westautobahn, which was abandoned by the Hofer supermarket chain, a new use by creating a logistics center.
Hackl and Huck are not convinced by the assurances. In addition to soil sealing, this “consideration of grassland into building land” will result in massively more traffic and noise, especially since there is no traffic plan. “And there is still available dedicated undeveloped building land in Ried that should be used first,” says Hackl. Since mid-July, the citizens’ initiative has collected 320 signatures, and the population is inviting them to their own information evening on August 29th at 7 p.m. in the parish center.
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