Local residents protest

Housing project threatens 16,000 square meters of forest

Local residents are up in arms against the clearing of this forest in a housing estate in Gallneukirchen.

(Bild: Dostal Harald)

Local residents in Gallneukirchen (Urfahr-Umgebung district) are up in arms against plans for a housing development. They are fighting for the preservation of 1.6 hectares of forest and against the destruction of the landscape. In a signature campaign, 800 people have already expressed their displeasure at the project plans.

For more than 500 years, Riedegg Castle has towered over the Gallneukirchen basin, clearly visible from afar. Now another "block" could dominate the landscape. At least that is what the citizens' initiative Riedmarkstraße/Ringweg/Oberwögern, which is up in arms against a residential project in Gallneukirchen, claims.

With an online petition, they want to dissuade the municipality, headed by Mayor Sepp Wall-Strasser (SP), and the state from clearing around 16,000 square meters of forest to enable the construction of three-storey residential buildings on a hill.

More than 800 people signed the petition and 300 wrote a comment. "You can see that the population is not indifferent to land consumption, especially as a project is to be built completely outside the town center. Almost everyone would be dependent on a vehicle to get to work, go shopping or take the children to school," said the initiators of the petition.

Criticism from FP and VP
It is positive that the FP and VP have expressed criticism. "It is an indictment that the SPÖ and the Greens in particular do not find it worth the effort to answer questions in this regard. Although the entire project with a 100-metre-long and at least three-storey apartment block is simply madness."

It's certainly not a prestige project on my part. I can also live with it if the state says it doesn't fit and the project won't work.

Sepp Wall-Strasser, SP-Bürgermeister

Local leader Wall-Strasser announces a longer statement to the petition initiators. He says to the "Krone": "The ball is also in the country's court. If the comments are negative, I can live with it if the project doesn't come to fruition. " For him, the question of the destruction of the landscape is debatable: "Aesthetics can be discussed. But if it is cleared and built, it must be multi-storey, subsidized housing. There is currently talk of 60 apartments, plus twelve terraced houses."