Tricky precedent

Residential development in the shopping center: “Would be our nail in the coffin”

The Arena shopping center in Fohnsdorf has particularly damaged the Judenburg city center. Now the operators want to add apartments.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/zVg)

The shopping center in Fohnsdorf, Styria, is to be expanded to include a housing estate. Critics fear that this step will further undermine the already struggling town centers. The Greens want to prevent this precedent from being set.

"Now we are sending out dozens of town center managers in Styria to save our town centers, and then we allow the gravediggers to seemingly do whatever they want on the edges of the municipalities," rumbles Lambert Schönleitner from the Green Party. His displeasure is directed at plans in Fohnsdorf in Upper Styria, where the operators of the Arena shopping center are currently planning the construction of residential buildings.