GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Design flaws should not delay plans to build a 300-unit U.S. military housing area near Grafenwöhr by the end of next year, according to Grafenwöhr mayor Helmuth Wächter.
Last year, German government officials gave a green light to the build-to-lease off-post housing area for U.S. soldiers at Hütten, a small farming village a few miles south of Grafenwöhr Training Area. Under the plan, the houses will be built by a private investor and leased to the U.S. Army.
The Grafenwöhr City Council’s construction committee reviewed and approved a zoning plan for Hütten, Wächter said Thursday. However the plan did not meet the Army’s expectations or those of the German Federal Facility Management Agency, which procures housing for U.S. troops based in the country, he said.
“The houses were too close together. They were supposed to be four-unit complexes but some complexes in the design had five or six units,” he said.
The concept of the housing area reflected in the contract with the U.S. government was not shown in the plan, he added.
“The contract said they wanted it spread out with free spaces and green zones, and that was not reflected in the plan,” he said.
“Now [the architects] are going back to the drawing board. On Feb. 28 a new plan will be given to the city for review, and it is expected to be approved.”
The project is being funded by the 4 Founders Group out of Frankfurt, an investment company, Wächter said.
“It is the intent of the planner and the city to have everything approved and the zoning plan become a construction plan that is law by the end of April,” he said.
“Then the construction can start in early May within the original timeline which calls for the houses to be turned over to the U.S. Army by the end of 2009.”
The site where the new town will be built requires landscaping because part of it was used as a landfill and construction material dump, he said.
“All of the soil from that area will be removed and no houses will be built there. It will become green space,” Wächter said.
The city hopes to get the project approved before local elections at the end of the month, he said.
Hütten on the Lake will cost an estimated 200 million euros — about $300 million — to build, he said.
Army officials estimate about 1,600 off-post homes must be built to accommodate thousands of soldiers and family members due to arrive here over the next few years. The total cost of leasing the homes will be $20 million annually, officials have said.
Netzaberg, an 830-unit build-to-lease housing area being built by the Danish firm Nordica, north of Grafenwöhr’s main post will be complete by summer when more than 1,500 soldiers and a large contingent of family members are due to arrive from Schweinfurt with the 2nd “Dagger” Brigade, U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwöhr officials said.
