This is what the dragon area currently looks like. On the left the Kreuzberg tax office, in the middle the organic supermarket, on the right Club Gretchen Photo: Siegfried Purschke Photo: Siegfried Purschke
By Andreas Vollbrechtshausen
Gossip for the Senate and the district office. The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) has revoked the status of a redevelopment area for the Dragonera site. This means that all plans for the conversion of the dirty area between the Kreuzberg town hall and the tax office are obsolete. Means: back to go!
The court justified its decision with the fact that the state of Berlin had declared the Dragonera site a redevelopment area in order to prevent private investors from getting a chance (case no.: 10A03.17). And: The Senate had set the market value of the property at 25 million euros when it was purchased from the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks – although a price of 36 million could have been achieved.
As a consequence of the verdict, the spokesman for the Senate Building Administration, Martin Pallgen, says: If the urban planning goals are not “possible via the path of a redevelopment area, we are thinking about realizing this with another instrument from the special urban planning law of the Building Code.”
It is at least questionable whether the plans for the area between Mehringdamm and Großbeerenstraße, which were painstakingly developed with many participants, can be implemented as planned (470 new apartments by 2030).
But Martin Pallgen is optimistic: “The decision of the Higher Administrative Court has no effect on the financing or implementation of the planned measures on the state-owned property.” The Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office also commented accordingly.
According to Pallgen, the written reasons for the judgment should first be awaited before further decisions are made.