Heidelberg (dpa / lsw) – In the dispute over the use of the former “Fauler Pelz” prison, the city of Heidelberg continues to defend itself legally. As a spokesman announced on Friday on request, the city brought another complaint to the Karlsruhe Administrative Court in two cases this week.
The Ministry of Social Affairs would like to convert the ex-prison into a rehabilitation center for addicted offenders and use it until a planned move to other facilities in 2025. However, the city is claiming the complex in the old town for university use.
The lawsuits are directed against an instruction from the Karlsruhe regional council that the city should issue a building permit by this Friday at the latest. In the view of the city, the authority is thereby violating the planning sovereignty of the municipality. On the other hand, the city is suing against the permission granted by the Ministry of Social Affairs to carry out conversion work without a building permit. Here too, from the city’s point of view, its planning sovereignty and the “instrument of preventive control” are being violated. Since the lawsuits have a suspensive effect according to the city’s legal opinion, no building permit has been issued so far, it said.
The regional council is now asking the city for a statement at short notice, as a spokeswoman said. At the same time, they are examining the possibility of issuing a building permit themselves.
Only on Wednesday did the Karlsruhe Administrative Court reject an application by the city to have the deferral of the state’s building application for the conversion of the ex-prison into an addiction treatment center effective immediately (7 K 2771/22).
