The now 82-year-old Porsche heir Wolfgang Porsche wants to build a tunnel for his villa in Salzburg so that he no longer has to drive over the dangerous road in winter. Despite being in a conservation area, he is allowed to build there, and the city claims it is in the public interest.
The title image is a symbolic image from the video game Forza and has nothing to do with the people or cars in this article.
Who is it about? The 82-year-old Wolfgang Porsche bought a villa in 2020 that is located on the so-called Kapuzinerberg in Salzburg. The Paschinger Schlössl once belonged to Stefan Zweig before he fled from the National Socialists in 1934 and had to sell it below value for that reason.
The castle can only be accessed via a difficult-to-navigate road. This road is also used by tourists visiting a nearby monastery. Especially in winter, the access to the Kapuzinerberg is challenging.
To ensure that the gentleman and his family and friends can reach the villa without problems, the Porsche heir decided to build an underground garage that will be connected by a tunnel to the other end of the mountain.
Private Tunnel in the Public Interest
What will the tunnel look like? The tunnel is intended to create a connection between a public parking lot and the private underground garage of the Porsche heir. The 500-meter long private tunnel serves no other purpose, so other residents of the Kapuzinerberg cannot use it for access to their properties, as it ends in the private garage of the Porsches.
The sole purpose of the construction is therefore to allow the friends and family of the Porsches to reach the villa more easily. However, this is not a problem for the city; on the contrary, they see it as a matter of public interest.
What does the city say about it? The Kapuzinerberg is part of a nature reserve owned by the city, which is why the businessman initially approached the city with his plans, to which the city was not averse at all.
The city initially approved the tunnel and the garage for a payment of €40,000 without involving the city council. The council only learned about the project about a year after the contract was signed.
However, the city council later approved the construction project in the city construction committee with a majority from SPÖ, ÖVP, and FPÖ, even though the payment was increased to 48,000 euros due to the project being enlarged through ventilation shafts, bypass points, and rock anchors (via auto-motor-und-sport.de).
The public, however, viewed the issue differently than the majority in the city council. They protested against the project and resisted with a petition with about 19,000 signatures. But that didn’t change anything.
For the city, it was clear that “public interest” was present, as a report from the Department of Urban Planning and Traffic in the Magistrate Salzburg states, according to TheTimes. Furthermore, the website motorpasion.com states that the planning office would explain that the traffic jams on the streets of the Kapuzinerberg could be reduced by the tunnel.
Even though the businessman is paying for the construction of the tunnel himself, it is questionable how the public interest can be served when only private individuals from the Porsche family’s circle of acquaintances can use the 500-meter tunnel. In Germany, we are fighting for affordable rents, another country shows how to build faster and cheaper
