After dedication freeze

The battle for a new location for the digital university is on

The planned IT:U site in Linz's green belt will now come to nothing.

(Bild: Werner Kerschbaummayr/WERNER KERSCHBAUMMAYR / FOTOKERSCHI)

Following the surprising end to the planned IT:U site in Linz-Auhof, Wels and Steyr are now being put forward as possible alternatives. The governor has declared the search for a location to be a top priority and wants to ensure that "no more unexpected delays occur".

There was great surprise - among both supporters and opponents of the project - when Dietmar Prammer (SPÖ) announced the end of the planned IT:U site near Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz-Auhof on Monday. The executive deputy mayor announced that he was pulling the emergency brake after the project had been classified as questionable in a statement by the state, particularly with regard to nature and climate protection.

"Dramatic, irresponsible"
The freeze on the rezoning of the site, which was laid down in a federal-state agreement, was still a topic of discussion on Tuesday. The President of the Federation of Austrian Industries, Stefan Pierer, considers it "dramatic in every respect" for the plan to establish a digital university in Upper Austria - especially because it also means that planned business relocations near the campus are off the table.

Doris Hummer, President of the Chamber of Commerce, takes the same line. She finds it "irresponsible to turn off the lights on the IT:U flagship project". The Deputy Mayor of Linz, Martin Hajart (ÖVP), criticized Prammer for destroying the trust of the partners needed to realize the IT:U with his approach.

SPÖ welcomes new location search
As was the case with Research Minister Markus Achleitner (ÖVP) on Monday, Pierer, Hummer and Hajart accuse Prammer, the SPÖ candidate for mayor of Linz, of having "election campaign motives". The SPÖ provincial parliamentary club, on the other hand, considers this to be "unworthy polemics" and welcomes the search for a location on areas that are already sealed. 

The following talks will show whether or how the Digital University could be accommodated on the Linz post office site.

Markus Leitgeb, Sprecher Österreichische Post AG

Location search now a top priority
Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP), who had not commented at all on Monday, has now declared this search for a new location to be a top priority. The state of Upper Austria and the federal government would start looking for alternatives. Whether this could be PostCity, which Prammer brought into play, is completely open. "The following talks will show whether or how the Digital University could be accommodated on the Linz Post site," said the Austrian Post in response to an inquiry from Krone. 

We very much hope that our concept will be seriously considered. Wels was and is the ideal location for IT:U.

Andreas Rabl (FPÖ), Bürgermeister Wels

Wels and Steyr offer themselves
In the meantime, Wels and Steyr are positioning themselves as alternatives. On Tuesday, Wels offered two locations close to the train station and university of applied sciences, some of which already have approved projects with several 10,000 square meters of office space. The current headquarters of the eww Group with a ready-to-occupy office tower would also soon be available. Steyr was also said to have "interesting space to offer as a location for industry and large IT companies, also close to the city center".

Wherever and whenever IT:U finds its home: The JKU premises, which it currently already uses, would be available until then, Stelzer informed after a meeting with Rector Stefan Koch and IT:U Founding President Stefanie Lindstaedt. 

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The location posse is another chapter in the bumpy history of Linz's digital university. In terms of image, Linz and Upper Austria now look more like provincial hicks than emperors of the location. That is one side of the coin. The other is that the case could also be a wake-up call: The fact that negative opinions from experts can bring down a project is apparently a new experience for overly power-conscious local politicians. Instead, they are used to pushing through projects, even if it is foreseeable that they will be problematic - as in this case for nature and the climate.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Alexander Schwarzl, Markus Wenzel)