Federal popular initiative "Space for people and nature (landscape initiative)"

The federal popular initiative "Space for people and nature (landscape initiative)" (short: landscape initiative ) calls for the revision of the spatial planning article in the Swiss federal constitution . The initiators identify a major problem in the continuous urban sprawl in Switzerland and the associated loss of cultivated land, which should be countered by the introduction of practical spatial planning instruments.

The initiative demands that the federal government and the cantons work together to ensure that the land is used economically, that building and non-building areas are clearly separated, the cultivated land is protected, and that high-quality internal development is promoted. Specifically, the initiative demands that the total area of ​​the building zones in Switzerland not be increased for 20 years.

Initiative text

^I The Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999 is amended as follows:
Art. 75 Spatial planning

^{1 The} Confederation and the cantons ensure the appropriate and economical use of the land, the orderly settlement of the land, the separation of the building area from the non-building area and the protection of the cultivated land. When performing their tasks, they take into account the requirements of spatial planning.

² The federal government lays down the principles of spatial planning. It issues provisions, in particular for high-quality internal development and to limit building in non-building areas. It promotes and coordinates the spatial planning of the cantons.

³ repealed

^II The transitional provisions of the Federal Constitution are supplemented as follows:
Art. 197 no. 8 (new)
8. Transitional provision to Art. 75 (spatial planning)

After the adoption of Article 75, the total area of ​​the building zones may not be increased for 20 years. The Federal Council can grant exceptions in justified cases.

Initiative Committee

The association “Yes to the Landscape Initiative” was founded as the sponsor of the landscape initiative. The association aims to support the landscape initiative and promote sustainable spatial planning in Switzerland. The founding members are the following 16 organizations: Action Committee Galmiz, Aquaviva, Doctors for the Environment, Bio-Suisse, Greenpeace , Green Party of Switzerland , Hausverein Switzerland , Pro Natura , Rheinau Confederation , Swiss Greina Foundation, Swiss Heritage Swiss Protection of Birds SVS / BirdLife Switzerland !, Foundation for Landscape Protection Switzerland , Swiss Traffic Club (VCS), Association for the Protection of Small and Medium-Sized Farmers (VKMB) , WWF Switzerland . The formal authorship, the initiative committee, includes federal parliamentarians from the parties SP, Greens, CVP and EPP.

Signature collection and submission

On July 10, 2007, the landscape initiative was published in the Federal Gazette (BBl 2007 4965) and the collection of signatures began. The deadline for collecting the necessary 100,000 certified signatures from Swiss voters would have run until January 10, 2009, but the initiative committee submitted 110,044 certified signatures to the Federal Chancellery on August 14, 2008.

Message from the Federal Council and treatment in Parliament

On January 21, 2010, the Federal Council passed its message to parliament. He recommended the popular initiative to be rejected and submitted an indirect counter-proposal in the form of a revision of the spatial planning law . He stated: "The legitimate concern of the initiative to stop urban sprawl and to better protect the landscape, he wants to meet with a partial revision of the spatial planning law."

retreat

The popular initiative was conditionally withdrawn by the initiative committee on June 26, 2012 in favor of the indirect counter-proposal (revision of the Spatial Planning Act) and withdrawn on April 30, 2013, after the revised Spatial Planning Act was adopted.

Web links

• Landscape Initiative, Initiative Committee website
• Federal popular initiative “Space for people and nature (landscape initiative )” , official text of the initiative, website of the Swiss Federal Chancellery
• Dossier on parlament.ch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ tagblatt.ch: Landscape initiative wants to use Swiss soil economically ( memento of the original from August 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , dated August 14, 2008  
2. ↑ DETEC media release ( Memento of the original dated January 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.