September 2016: Reception Facility for Asylum-Seekers of the Regional Government of Upper Bavaria – Fürstenfeldbruck Branch

In Sep­tem­ber 2014, the Regio­nal Govern­ment of Upper Bava­ria set up a branch of the Munich initi­al recep­ti­on faci­li­ty (EAE) at Fürs­ten­feld­bruck air base on short noti­ce due to the high num­ber of refu­gees arri­ving in Bava­ria. At that time, the site was per­mit­ted for mili­ta­ry use, which means that the muni­ci­pa­li­ty had no chan­ce but to accept that.

In Novem­ber 2015, this part of the site was released from mili­ta­ry use. The Regio­nal Govern­ment of Upper Bava­ria did not file a buil­ding per­mit for the cur­rent “civil” use.

In April 2016, the Fede­ral Minis­try of Labor and Social Affairs infor­med the muni­ci­pa­li­ty of Fürs­ten­feld­bruck about its plans to con­vert the site into a tem­po­ra­ry recep­ti­on faci­li­ty (KAE) with up to 1,000 beds, struc­tu­ral exten­si­ons and, what is more, for a term of use of at least 10 years.

A short expl­ana­ti­on: Tem­po­ra­ry recep­ti­on is part of a multi-stage recep­ti­on sys­tem con­sis­ting of an arri­val cen­ter, tem­po­ra­ry recep­ti­on and bran­ches of the EAE. After the asyl­um see­kers reach the arri­val cen­ter at Euro-Industriepark Munich, they are to be brought to the KAE in Fürs­ten­feld­bruck. Fol­lo­wing this, the­re will be a dis­tri­bu­ti­on to the respec­ti­ve bran­ches, as the case may be.

The town coun­cil cle­ar­ly voi­ced its reser­va­tions about the plans of the Fede­ral Minis­try of Labor and Social Affairs and the Govern­ment of Upper Bava­ria. On the one hand, the con­cen­tra­ti­on of such a high a num­ber of asyl­um see­kers in the small town of Fürs­ten­feld­bruck was con­side­red cri­ti­cal. On the other hand, due to the res­truc­tu­ring the­re is reason to fear that in par­ti­cu­lar the asyl­um see­kers, who­se pro­s­pects of being gran­ted asyl­um sta­tus, still remain from unclear to nega­ti­ve and who­se asyl­um pro­ce­du­res can take months to years, will be accom­mo­da­ted at the KAE. Moreo­ver, the­re was a lack of under­stan­ding about the plan­ned length of use until 2026 main­ly becau­se the muni­ci­pa­li­ty had assu­med that the branch would be dis­sol­ved in the year of 2020 along with the with­dra­wal of the Bundeswehr.

In the con­text of the con­ver­si­on, the long-term exis­tence of such recep­ti­on faci­li­ty loca­ted in the imme­dia­te vici­ni­ty of the town cen­ter means a curtailm­ent in urban deve­lo­p­ment and infra­struc­tu­ral rest­ric­tions as well as finan­cial dis­ad­van­ta­ges. In addi­ti­on, the imple­men­ta­ti­on of the site deve­lo­p­ment gui­de­lines deci­ded upon in March 2015 can­not be ensu­red for a term of more than five years of use. It also remains unclear to what ext­ent the muni­ci­pa­li­ty may be held accoun­ta­ble for tasks such as pro­vi­ding kin­der­gar­tens and schools as well as accom­mo­da­ti­ons etc., which may lie ahead. The unspe­ci­fic state­ments of the Local Govern­ment of Upper Bava­ria on allo­ca­ti­on num­bers and lengths of stay as well as the lack­ing wil­ling­ness to exclude the set-up of fur­ther recep­ti­on faci­li­ties in Fürs­ten­feld­bruck and the unequi­vo­cal dis­tri­bu­ti­on sys­tem encou­ra­ged the town coun­cil in their cri­ti­cal attitude.

On 10^th May, 23^rd August and most recent­ly on 12^th Sep­tem­ber, the town coun­cil the­r­e­fo­re deci­ded to reject the set-up of a long-term faci­li­ty and only agreed on the tem­po­ra­ry use and this only under cer­tain conditions.

Seve­ral nego­tia­ti­on rounds con­duc­ted from May to August 2016 among the Minis­try of Labor and Social Affairs, the Govern­ment of Upper Bava­ria and the muni­ci­pa­li­ty of Fürs­ten­feld­bruck did not bring about an agree­ment. For this reason, among­st others, the decis­i­on was taken to prepa­re a zoning plan “F4 Air Base – for­mer avia­ti­on school area”. The zoning plan is inten­ded to link the recep­ti­on facility’s length of use (until 2021) and the release date for the remai­ning mili­ta­ry area so that an agreed urban deve­lo­p­ment can be initia­ted at least in the south-western part of the con­ver­si­on area. The­re, the legal plan­ning requi­re­ments for a com­pa­ti­ble follow-up use such as resi­den­ti­al buil­ding are­as and public faci­li­ties are to be made pos­si­ble. The zoning plan pro­ce­du­re will soon be published. The citi­zens can also com­ment on this issue.