Potsdam is looking for new, competitive sports areas. The CDU parliamentary group therefore wants to have two possible areas examined: the western area of the Lustgarten and the area west of the sports fields on Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße in Babelsberg. For the area at the Lustgarten, an agreement would have to be reached with the planning office that was responsible for the redesign of the area for the 2001 Federal Garden Show. In the building committee, the chairman and applicant Wieland Niekisch (CDU) referred on Tuesday evening to Major General Henning von Tresckow, who had demanded in the 1940s that part of the pleasure garden should be used for sports.
“It was then, too,” Saskia Hüneke (Greens) recalled of the Ernst Thälmann Stadium, which was built after the war in place of the Lustgarten. The stadium was to be replaced for the Buga after its demolition. But there are still no substitute areas for sport. According to the CDU faction, at least ten sports facilities suitable for competitions are missing in Potsdam. The building committee unanimously recommended examining the Lustgarten, but rejected an investigation for the site in Babelsberg. Trees grow there.
Chilling on the Havel
Another leisure area is finally to be realised. The addition of the Nuthepark opposite the north exit of the main station, between Langer Brücke and the ILB, is one of the 20 most common wishes in participatory budgeting 2023/24. The building committee approved the implementation without dissenting votes.
The building councilor Bernd Rubelt spoke of a delay in planning, but the implementation will take place. Among other things, the youth advisory board spoke out in favor of seating, a lawn to chill out, table tennis tables, soccer and beach volleyball courts. According to Rubelt, 900,000 euros are planned for the implementation.
New cycle paths and Tempo 30
According to the will of the building committee, the city administration should implement another wish from the participatory budget: the expansion of the bicycle infrastructure. However, there is currently no budget for the cycle expressway between the main station and Potsdam-West, according to the assessment by the administration, which refers to a feasibility study from 2015.
Bicycles are also required to have priority at traffic lights, wide cycle lanes in separate directions that do not end at the end of a street without a transition, and a speed limit of 30 km/h where cycle lanes meet motor vehicles. The administration should check the implementation of the measures. Closing the gaps in the cycle path network between Satzkorn and Marquardt, also called for in participatory budgeting, can only be implemented from 2025, said Bernd Rubelt. “We are now conducting the necessary negotiations on property purchases.”
High-rise concept not until 2024
The urban development concept for high-rise buildings commissioned by the city councilors in 2021, which should be available in December, is still a long time coming. The administration had no capacity for this. If a job advertisement leads to a filling in the first half of this year, processing is planned for 2023 and 2024, the administration announced.
“We could be finished in mid-2024,” says Bernd Rubelt. Because of the abundance of tasks, the CDU parliamentary group wants to create five new jobs in urban planning and building supervision. However, Wieland Niekisch (CDU) withdrew the corresponding application in the building committee. The application still needs to be qualified.
Master plan for city canal
With the targeted framework planning, the city administration is now bringing an old topic back onto the agenda: the continuation of the city canal. A further construction was last calculated in 2001 in D-Mark, said Yvonne Stolzmann, department head for urban planning in Potsdam’s center. The framework plan should enable a district development of a 30-hectare area around the street Am Kanal. This also includes the course of the canal. The framework plan should enable climate-adapted urban development. There are urban grants for that. A pure restoration of the canal, on the other hand, is not eligible, according to Stolzmann.
The framework plan serves to restore the city canal as a continuous watercourse, explained Bernd Rubelt. As soon as the money is available, construction can begin quickly. According to Rubelt, the canal can serve as a “reservoir for heavy rain”. The other rejects the plan. André Tomczak spoke of “a bit of urban cosmetics” in order to implement the city canal as a flowing water with the framework planning. A river is not feasible and therefore a pipe dream. The majority of the committee voted in favor of the master plan.
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