Devastating expert opinion

Digital university in Linz has to find a new location

This is what the university should have looked like.

(Bild: Kronaus Mitterer Architekten)

A bombshell about the new university in Linz! An expert opinion from the Directorate for Regional Planning has written a letter dismantling the planned location for the digital university. A new location must now be found. What remains are costs and damage to the image of the city of Linz.

"The planned construction project would have serious negative effects and contradicts sustainable urban development, especially with regard to nature conservation and the climate in Linz." This statement does not come from the opponents of the planned location in Linz-Auhof, but from the province of Upper Austria.

The report also warns of the dangers of slope water, a blockage of the cold air flow and a massive increase in traffic. It recommends the search for an alternative location. The city immediately stopped the planned rezoning, as Dietmar Prammer (executive deputy mayor) had to announce at a hastily convened press conference on Monday morning.

Prammer pulls the emergency brake
"Following the state's expert opinion, I am pulling the emergency brake on the project and will not allow the site to be rezoned as building land," said the Deputy Mayor. "It is undisputed that climate change is caused by us humans. This results in a massive negative impact on our quality of life - also in Linz - which we are increasingly experiencing with hot summers and flood disasters," said Prammer, who emphasized that he was aware of "how much passion and work from many people" had already gone into this site.

It should have been built here.

(Bild: Werner Kerschbaummayr)

What happens now?
According to Prammer, Linz still wants the digital university: "We therefore need to find a better location quickly". One of the locations repeatedly mentioned is Post City at the main railway station. Prammer has already made contact with the owner's representatives: "Post City is willing to talk. The City of Linz, the state of Upper Austria and the federal government now need to act together quickly to clear the way for this or another location."

Cheers from opponents of the location
"We've done it - the green belt has been saved. This is a historic day in which nature, the climate and the people of Linz are the big winners. I would like to thank the citizens' initiative, the many committed people who have worked tirelessly for months to preserve the green belt. Although the facts have been on the table from the very beginning, the SPÖ and ÖVP have stuck to concreting it over to this day," explains Green City Councillor Eva Schobesberger. For her, the Post-Ciy is also the ideal location. "There is enough space here to locate the new university and businesses on an area that is already sealed. In addition, this location would contribute to a significant revitalization of the city center and could not be better connected to the public transport network," she says.

FPÖ city councillor Michael Raml emphasizes that his party has always "opposed these monstrous rezoning plans" and also claims the idea of the alternative Post City location for the FPÖ. For Raml, one thing is clear: "The rezoning freeze must also apply after the mayoral election."

The Linz+ list, which is represented on the municipal council and has always spoken out against the rezoning of the site, also remains skeptical: "We are continuing to collect signatures for a Linz referendum," says municipal councillor Lorenz Potocnik. The necessary 6,100 signatures are planned to be submitted in November.

"Every location has its advantages"
Deputy Mayor Martin Hajart emphasizes: "The new digital university is an enormously important location factor for Linz. Our economy needs the IT specialists who need to be trained here. Every location in Linz has its advantages - the one at the JKU the direct connection between the two universities, the one at the train station the good transport links. The most important thing is that the IT:U in Linz is not buried."

This is also the hope of the Neos, but they are harsh on the political decision-makers. They have "put the cart before the horse" and wanted to push through the IT:U project "at all costs". "The way decisions were made and the path to the current concept was hair-raising for the most part. Anyone who works like this in the private sector will be fired," says Neos leader Felix Eypeltauer.