The agenda of the meeting on 27 November comprised a total of 14 items and was accordingly extensive.
Below, we provide detailed information on the points that we consider to be the most important.
“Parkhouse”
Project Description
One of the central points of the meeting was the presentation of the project to extend the existing parking area at the Centre Culturel for €3.7 million. The majority alternately refers to the project as a “parkhouse”, an “extension”, or a “parking deck”:
The project foresees the construction of an additional parking platform above the current parking spaces (access via rue de Contern). No structural connection between the two levels is planned. To move from one level to the other, drivers would still need to detour via rue Principale and rue d’Itzig. This does not constitute an improvement over the current traffic situation.
Access to the new platform is planned via rue Principale, at the location of the current bus stop “Kiirch”. This stop would therefore have to be removed. It remains unclear whether this heavily used bus stop will be relocated or eliminated entirely in favour of the “parkhouse”.
The project no longer provides for car-sharing parking spaces. This contradicts the information provided by the College of Aldermen, which confirmed to us at the beginning of 2025 that the car-sharing service is well used by residents.
So what?
Overall, the issue is about relocating around 40 parking spaces: the spaces next to the church, on one side of the cultural centre, would then be moved to the other side. This would mean roughly 40 parking spots “moving from left to right,” an operation costing €3.7 million — that’s over €90,000 per parking space. And the offer doesn’t even include a whole series of additional costs:
- What’s written in the fine print of the offer (image)
- Renaturation of the parking spaces behind the church (separate project)
- Possible construction of a new “Kiirch” bus stop
According to the plans, the construction site will run from 2026 to 2028. Afterwards comes the project for the renaturation of the current parking area behind the church.
So we are talking about a major investment of over €90,000 per parking space. The DP mayor, Claude Mousel, keeps insisting that this initiative is part of the “Sandweiler, Fit for the Future” plan. But that’s not true. As can be read, the “Sandweiler, Fit for the Future” initiative was presented to residents on 19 November 2024, and only afterwards were the related workshops organised.
However, the file for the parking structure project shows that it already began in October 2024 (image). The “parkhouse” project was therefore already well underway when the workshops even started.
This is further evidence that this majority’s priorities lie with a restaurant and a car park. Surely, after the construction of the “Haus vun de Kanner” and the planning of the park under the leadership of the previous majority, it would have made much more sense to build a new Maison Relais, a primary school and sports facilities, rather than simply relocating parking spaces at a cost of at least €3.7 million.
CSV Position
The CSV did not support this prestige project for, among other things, the following reasons:
- In the workshops for “Sandweiler, Fit for the Future,” citizens did not ask for a parking garage. This project was imposed on residents at this location.
- No improvement to the parking situation: more than €3.7 million just to move parking spaces from left to right without any added value.
- The project failed to replace the access via the Gässel with an alternative access route. With the future “Hentzenhaus” restaurant, traffic in rue d’Itzig and rue de Contern (Gässel) will increase accordingly.
- A 5-hour parking limit attracts long-term users, as they can take advantage of the opportunity to keep their cars dry in bad weather under the covered section of the parking garage.
- After the redevelopment of rue d’Itzig, residents of this street will continue to endure dirt and truck traffic for years to come because of the “Hentzenhaus” restaurant and the construction of the parking garage.
Traffic Regulations
On this point, the municipal executive presented the municipal council with new traffic regulations. An opinion from the planning commission (Aménagementskommissioun) was not included in the file. Remarks from the commission were supposedly incorporated into the document beforehand. However, the amendments to the current regulation remain extremely limited. We would like to list the most important changes here:
- Parking duration at the “Haus vun de Kanner” parking area is now regulated: 1 hour (front section) and 5 hours (rear section).
- Partial parking ban in rue Jean Schaus (houses 5 to 7).
- In some areas, parking on the pavement is allowed at the end of rue d’Oetrange.
- “Priority to the right” has been introduced in some parts of rue Principale.
This new regulation could have been an opportunity to address a number of different issues. After the CSV made several concrete proposals, Mayor Claude Mousel clearly stated that he did not wish to accept any changes—neither during the meeting nor afterwards as an amendment. With this blocking of every meaningful discussion, any further proposals would have been nothing but a waste of time.
Before the mayor’s statement, we had proposed, for example:
- One-sided parking ban in the rue de Contern (Gässel)
- No parking on pavements
- Parking ban in rue Jean Schaus from No. 7 to rue d’Itzig
- Parking ban in rue du Pain from rue d’Itzig to house 2a
- rue Nic. Welter, Hiel, …
Because a major opportunity was missed with this regulation and with the stance of the municipal executive—especially that of Mayor Claude Mousel—the CSV voted against it.
Waste Management
In the file that the Board of Aldermen submitted to the Municipal Council in preparation for the meeting, there was a proposal for a new fee regulation concerning waste management. This regulation was drawn up by SIAS (the Environmental and Nature Protection Syndicate), in which the municipality of Sandweiler is also represented. However, according to Mayor Mousel’s explanations, doubts had arisen regarding the calculations on which the new tariffs are based. In fact, the file—prepared in this form by the Collegue of Aldermen—contained comparatively few figures.
At the proposal of the Collegue of Aldermen, the Municipal Council unanimously postponed the vote on this incomplete file due to the lack of necessary information.