It's hard to believe: in the vogelherd wind farm, which is being built across the county near lochau (market town of thurnau) and busbach (municipality of eckersdorf), eight windmills have already been growing into the high. Rotors to start turning as early as march. But the timetable is now in disarray because there has been a court-ordered halt to construction. The 40-million-project is slowed down.
The munich decision
Andrea Balzer from lochau filed a lawsuit against the immission control permit issued by the district authorities of kulmbach and bayreuth – and is now celebrating a success. After her complaint was rejected by the administrative court in bayreuth, she sought an appeal. The bavarian administrative court (VGH) in munich has now allowed this to proceed. In urgent proceedings initiated by their lawyer stefan kollerer (kulmbach) with regard to the bayreuth decision, the munich judges have also put a stop to the construction work. This only affects the six bikes on the eckersdorf site. "But I assume that construction will be stopped altogether. Because an urgent procedure was also successful on the kulmbach side", says kollerer.
View of birds and bats
The appeal will be heard by the VGH on 8 june. February deal. According to kollerer, the chances of success are open in the opinion of the judges. There is much to suggest that the immission control permit is unlawful because, according to the decision, the "general examination of the individual case" carried out by the district office of bayreuth was not successful not in compliance with legal requirements. The munich judges had criticized the fact that this had only taken place shortly before the decision was issued. Environmental impact on birds and bats could be significant. If it turns out that an environmental impact assessment still has to be carried out, there will be a serious procedural deficiency, according to kollerer.
That's why construction has been halted
It is questionable whether his client, as a local resident, can demand the cancellation of the immission control permit on grounds of nature conservation law. The judges have yet to clarify this. As kollerer explains, the construction stop was put in place to prevent the wind turbines from being fully erected before the dispute was resolved.
What the district authorities say
What the bayreuth district office says about the munich decision? We do not take away your work," said vanessa feineis, head of the TI clothing store, burying visitors to the city's advent calendar for about a year and a half, it says. "We ask for your understanding if we do not want to say anything in advance", according to the spokesman for the district office, herbert retzer.
The kulmbach district office also keeps its statement short. "The court has raised many questions. We assume, however, that the first-instance decision of the administrative court of bayreuth was correct", says lawyer lars peetz.
Auberjudicial agreement?
The outcome of the appeal proceedings is eagerly awaited by all parties involved. Or will it perhaps even come to a court settlement beforehand??
Timetable questionable
Plaintiff andrea balzer did not wish to comment on the facts of the case. The company primus energie from regensburg, the wind farm developer, has not responded to a BR inquiry. The regensburger had not considered the lochauer's lawsuit to have any chance of success and therefore started construction at the end of 2016. The resident's chances were close to zero, project manager marcus vilsmeier had explained at the time. But whether he will be able to complete his project in march as planned is more than questionable in january 2017.