Overview
- In a secret ballot, the council voted 24–19 with 4 abstentions to lift the existing planning procedure for the Monheim site.
- Council factions from the CDU, SPD, Greens and FDP cited disproportionate land use, traffic overload and ecological concerns.
- Leaders stressed this is not a final rejection and invited dialogue, with meetings between all factions and the club scheduled next week.
- Bayer 04 said it will stick to Monheim, called the decision hard to understand and reiterated it has no Plan B.
- The proposed campus spans about 22 hectares with roughly twelve pitches and support buildings, which the club says are urgent as A1/A3 expansion will remove current training fields; public petitions show over 12,500 signatures in support versus about 2,500 against.