Workers are putting the finishing touches on landscaping around new military housing at Netzaberg. (Seth Robson / S&S)
Workers are putting the finishing touches on landscaping around new military housing at Netzaberg. (Seth Robson / S&S)
New housing at Netzaberg includes children's play areas. (Seth Robson / S&S)
GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Netzaberg, a new town being built to house hundreds of military families here, will welcome its first inhabitants this month, officials said.
Efficient Basing Grafenwöhr spokeswoman Susanne Bartsch said Thursday that the Army received the first 88 houses in the community from the German Federal Office of Real Estate Management on May 23.
“The first families are scheduled to move into the homes on Netzaberg in the middle of June,” she said.
Netzaberg will eventually include 830 build-to-lease off-post military houses as well as new middle and elementary schools, a gas station and a shopette.
On Thursday, workers were putting the finishing touches on landscaping around the houses, which have appliances installed and are ready to live in.
The town is part of a $1 billion EBG construction program that will see Grafenwöhr expand from a 1,000-soldier garrison with 2,000 military family members to a brigade-size community with 4,500 active-duty soldiers and 7,000 family members by 2008.
U.S. Army Europe plans call for 588 soldiers and 846 family members to move to Grafenwöhr by the end of the fiscal year, in September.
Many of Netzaberg’s first residents are likely to be from units due to arrive at Grafenwöhr this summer, including the 574th Supply Company from Mannheim, the 1st Inland Cargo Transfer Company and the 5th Maintenance Company (Ordnance) from Kaiserslautern, and Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 709th Military Police Battalion from Hanau.
Bartsch said a road linking Netzaberg to Eschenbach — the nearest off-post town — will remain closed until work on the eastern part of the town is finished toward the end of the year.
In the meantime, residents will get to and from their homes via a road through the town’s new gate into the training area via Gate 20, and another access road leading to the off-post town of Grafenwöhr, she said.
The first houses to open at Netzaberg will be those closest to the training area in a section ringed by Henry-Kissinger-Strasse.
Bartsch said roads in the eastern part of Netzaberg are named for famous Americans with German links.
Street names include: Elvis Presley Strasse; Eisenhowerstrasse; Wernher von Braun Strasse, named for a German who developed rocket technology for Germany and the U.S.; Von Steuben Strasse, named after a German-born officer who served with U.S. Gen. George Washington in the American Revolution; Steinwaystrasse, named after the famous piano maker; and George Marshall Strasse.
