After almost a year of heated controversy, a collection of signatures, a petition for a referendum and a referendum, the citizens’ initiative against the burgerhaus has ceased its work. As a group, it will no longer appear in public after a final attempt to influence the building project was rejected a few days ago.
He is still being approached by many people about the future of the burgerhaus, says ronald holl. Holl, together with elfriede dickert, took on the role of spokesperson for the citizens’ initiative against the burgerhaus last year. Now the two declare in an interview that their public campaign against the burgerhaus is coming to an end. And that’s where the activities of the citizens’ initiative end.
But the topic has not quite left them yet. "That was not our approach. We wanted to have the concept reviewed in principle", says holl about the changes to the burgerhaus plans decided in february. The two still don’t sound in agreement with what is to be built. Holl says: "we’ll just take it as it is. Nothing else remains."
At the beginning of march, dickert and holl filed an objection against the city council’s decision in february with the legal supervisory authority at the district administration office in bad kissingen. For the legal supervision, however, the decision is not objectionable.
In her letter of reply, she first makes it clear in principle that "the right of the persons authorized to represent a citizens’ initiative to act on behalf of the citizens’ initiative and to ‘bundle’ the will of the signatories in this respect is limited in time until the citizens’ referendum has been carried out. The law does not provide for representation of interests beyond the referendum.
According to dickert, the initiative was aware of this. But she wanted to try again.
There is also no individual right of objection to individual city council resolutions, the legal supervisor continues. Therefore, it responds to the letter from the citizens’ initiative as a "submission/complaint". Accordingly, the resolutions do not contradict the decision of the court. In doing so, the legal supervisor refers to the question that the initiative had posed in its burgerbegehren petition. Regarding the changes in the plans for the burgerhaus decided by the city council, the letter from the legal supervisor states: "from a legal point of view, the decision of the burgerhaus has been taken into account."
After deducting the cost of the redesign, the changes are expected to make the burgerhaus about 200,000 euros cheaper. A specific amount by which the burgerhaus should be made cheaper was not in the question posed in the burgerbegehrens, and neither was the exclusion of the previous architects’ office, argues the legal supervisor.
The city did not expect anything other than this assessment, since the city council’s decision was preceded by extensive legal consultations. Now, in retrospect, says holl, he knows he should have been bolder and named a concrete amount of savings in the citizens’ petition. But as I said: that’s over now.
The two spokespersons for the burgerinitiative are now only voicing the expectation that the city and the burghers have learned something. Dickert says: "I hope that the people of hammelburg will open their eyes and ears in the future to what comes out of the town hall." holl calls for more openness and transparency. "The city should have learned that the burghers must be given a real chance to have their say", he declares.
Even though he is often asked about it, he cannot say at the moment whether he will be on a list in the 2020 municipal elections, aubert holl says. Dickert says: "for me it’s over."
Nevertheless, both want to remain interested in local politics, for example, what is happening with the railroad station road or the traffic concept. How the burgerhaus project will develop further, they want to observe from behind the scenes. Dickert says she will attend one or two city council meetings in private if the burgerhaus is on the agenda. And privately there will probably be further discussion about the topic.
