Spatial planning in Switzerland

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Spatial planning law, the planning system and planning instruments differ considerably in all countries, although the tasks and objectives of spatial planning are quite comparable in many countries. This article explicitly explains spatial planning in Switzerland , which is heavily influenced by the federalist state system in Switzerland and the peculiarities of direct democracy with a variety of options for the population to participate in decision-making. There are 129 spatial planning regions in Switzerland for spatial planning purposes .

Why spatial planning?

The landscape in Switzerland has been changing at a rapid pace since the 19th century . The causes of this redesign of the area were the settlement growth, the expansion of the transport and energy infrastructure, the water corrections and the overall improvement. Humans use the soil, the water, the air - the entire living space. He creates buildings, lives, works, spends his free time and moves in this space. Our standard of living depends on goods, productions and services, all of which also take up living space. These intensive usage requirements lead to conflicts of interest, which become greater the more scarce the available living space is and the more the need to protect nature and the landscape is recognized. The different usage requirements are coordinated with the help of spatial planning.

What is spatial planning?

Spatial planning is the targeted action on the spatial development of society, the economy and the natural, built and social environment in a certain area. As a generic term, spatial planning in this sense includes all spatial planning by the public sector at all state levels ( federal , cantons , municipalities ) and in all spatially relevant areas (transport, environment, economy, society, etc.).

Spatial planning has the task of taking up the spatial problems and coordinating the functions in the room with one another. To this end, she develops basic ideas that consider the living space in the overall context and while respecting the freedom of decision and action of future generations. In addition, the spatial planning must show which problems are being addressed with which measures and in which chronological order. Spatial planning is ultimately land use planning in that it determines the permissible use of the individual land areas, and it takes on coordination functions by coordinating the use claims, deciding on conflicts that may arise and providing the basis for official cooperation throughout all spatially effective state activities. Spatial planning is ecologically oriented, as it tackles spatial problems with responsibility for the living space.

Comprehensive planning and coordination obligation for all authorities

In 1969, a spatial planning article was included in the federal constitution for the first time . This gave the federal government the authority to legislate in principle in spatial planning. The elaboration and concrete implementation in plans, on the other hand, is essentially a matter for the cantons, which in turn tend to delegate some of the tasks to the municipalities. In addition to this basic legislation, the Confederation promotes and coordinates the spatial planning of the cantons and also takes into account the "requirements" of spatial planning in its own tasks. However, the reality in Swiss spatial planning is not as simple as the constitutional article expresses. In fact, the federal government, the cantons and the communes are obliged to jointly ensure that the land is used economically. They do this, among other things, by coordinating their spatially effective activities and "realizing spatial planning that is geared to the desired development of the country". In detail, the tasks of the Spatial Planning Act are distributed as follows:

The spatial planning tasks of the federal government

At federal level, the Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE is responsible for spatial planning and reports to the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication DETEC. On March 3, 2013, the Swiss electorate approved a revision of the Spatial Planning Act.

Basic legislation

When it comes to legislation, the Confederation has to limit itself to enacting principles so that the cantons have legislative leeway. However, the federal government may regulate in detail particularly important areas, such as the central principle of the separation of building and non-building areas derived from the Federal Constitution. The federal law principles express themselves in particular

  • the objectives and planning principles that must be taken into account in any spatial planning;
  • the planning instruments and the associated procedural rules;
  • those individual questions that are central to the entire function of spatial planning, such as the requirement to obtain a permit for all buildings and facilities, the size of the building zones, the exceptional permissibility of building outside the building zones and ensuring that the building land can be developed.

Promotion and coordination of cantonal spatial planning

Cooperation between the Confederation and the cantons is a key postulate of cooperative federalism. The federal government promotes and coordinates the spatial planning of the cantons primarily through the aforementioned basic legislation and through the approval of the cantonal structure plans. However, he also has a coordination mandate between his own spatially effective tasks and those of the cantons. Important instruments for this are the fundamentals developed by the federal government and the actual federal planning instruments, the concepts and sectoral plans. The federal government draws up concepts and sectoral plans in subject areas for which it is largely solely responsible (transport infrastructure, military, transmission lines, etc.). An illustrative example of the need for a sectoral plan is the area of ​​transport: In the sectoral plan "Transport", the partial structure plans for road, Rail / public transport and aviation combined. He puts the overall view in the foreground and ensures the necessary coordination with the spatial planning of the cantons. The sectoral plan is not directly binding for the private sector, but shows the overriding goals, principles and priorities according to which the Federal Council acts in fulfilling its spatially effective tasks in the transport sector and what conclusions result from this for the planning of the transport modes.

Consideration of spatial planning when fulfilling federal tasks

In fulfilling the tasks assigned to it, the federal government is also bound by the objectives and principles of spatial planning. So he remains committed to the Spatial Planning Act at all stages of his actions - planning, legislation, administration, jurisdiction. Binding to the “requirements” of spatial planning also means that the federal government is bound by cantonal law and the planning based on it. With the approval of the cantonal structure plans by the federal government, it is finally ensured that the cantonal spatial planning does not inadmissibly hinder the fulfillment of tasks by the federal government.

The spatial planning tasks of the cantons

According to the text of the Federal Constitution, the cantons are responsible for the actual creation of spatial planning.

Spatial Planning and Building Act

The cantons enact cantonal implementing legislation for the federal law on spatial planning. The federal law only regulates the principles and therefore does not yet constitute a set of rules that answer all important questions. These cantonal spatial planning and building laws also contain cantonal public building law, as well as often road building law and the right to reallocate building land. The cantonal public building law deals with the requirements for building, the classification and design of the buildings as well as the requirements for construction, operation and maintenance up to and including the building permit . There are also procedural rules. When issuing their spatial planning law, the cantons are bound by the goals and principles as well as the instruments of federal law. This and the associated case law of the Federal Supreme Court enable a certain degree of legal standardization. In addition, the spatial planning and building laws of the cantons differ significantly in terms of scope and terminology.

Cantonal structure plan

The central planning instrument of the cantons is the structure plan . It is subject to approval by the Federal Council. In the structure plan, the cantons show how the numerous spatial activities of the Confederation, the canton and the communes are coordinated in their area. The subject of the structure plan is also the question of when and by what means the spatially relevant public tasks are to be fulfilled. The result is a plan that is binding on the authorities and which, coordinated with the federal government, the neighboring cantons and neighboring countries, shows how the cantonal spatial planning should progress towards the desired spatial development. To name just a few examples, they can affect public transport networks, nature reserves of cantonal importance, locations for waste disposal systems and the like. The cantonal structure plan is not a draft of a desirable final state of the canton area, but a process plan for the coordination and control of the next stages in a constantly progressing spatial development. A map is used for visual clarification and localization of the structure plan content. In the course of the spatial planning process, contradictions and conflicts become visible, which can be resolved in the given spatial planning process. The structure plans are continuously adapted to developments and revised at least every ten years.

Regional planning associations

Large cantons often delegate the supra-municipal spatial planning tasks to public planning associations (regional planning associations). In the canton of Zurich, for example, they develop regional structure plans, which continue spatial planning on the basis of the cantonal structure plan.

Use planning of the municipalities

Most of the Swiss cantons have a highly developed municipal autonomy. In the field of spatial planning accordingly following demarcation is carried out frequently: During the Canton for its whole territory detecting binding on authorities and planning guidance is responsible, he leaves the communities the landowners-binding -use planning , ie in particular the definition of the construction area from the non-building area (agricultural areas, the rest of the municipality, protection zones ) and the determination of the type and extent of the specific structural use in the building zones.

The land use plans must comply with the requirements of the Federal Act on Spatial Planning. The stipulations are specific to the parcel and are more detailed than in the cantonal structure plans. The building zones must respect the planning objectives and principles and must not exceed the size stipulated by federal law. The norms of environmental law are also of crucial importance. The establishment of a building zone, for example, requires compliance with certain noise limits. Inextricably linked to the definition of the building zones is the task of opening them up later and making them ready for construction. The restriction of building to building zones only makes sense if the building zones that have been set aside for fifteen years are made ready for building in appropriate stages. Another municipal task is to finance the development of building land. Most of the time, the landowners are involved with contributions to finance the development of building land. Municipal land use planning is not limited to the construction zone, but also includes the area outside the construction zone. There, zones with special purposes can be defined (e.g. material extraction, hamlet zones, ski slopes, etc.). The definition of protection zones based on landscape planning is also essential.

Since the municipalities have considerable scope for decision-making, they often develop models and municipal structure plans for their area as a basis for land use planning and for coordination with their other public tasks. The tasks of cantonal structure planning and communal land use planning are intertwined in a variety of ways. In this sense, one can speak of a double hierarchy:

  • Even if the municipalities are responsible for land use planning, they have to respect the plans of the higher state level.
  • The Swiss planning instruments provide for various stages: The structure plan binding the authorities provides requirements for land-use planning that is binding on landowners (legal enforcement instrument: building ban ) and this in turn usually limits the possibilities of the even more detailed, often very specific building projects regulating special use plans (also called design plan, building regulations, development plan) .

Most of the cantons delegate the tasks of developing building land, reallocating building land and issuing building permits to the municipalities. However, the federal law on spatial planning assigns the authority to approve buildings outside the building zones to a cantonal authority.

The objectives and principles of the Federal Law on Spatial Planning

Economical land use

The federal law on spatial planning lays down the objectives and principles for spatial planning for the whole of Switzerland. The overall objective is the economical use of the non-reproducible soil. The importance of this goal becomes easier to understand if one takes into account that of the comparatively small land area of ​​42,000 km², only about 30 percent is suitable for intensive human use. The goal of economical land use comprises two aspects:

  • In view of the sustained and rapid expansion of the settlements in recent decades, land use must be restricted. The focus is on the densification and conversion of the existing settlement area. With regard to densification, however, certain doubts have been voiced recently (2013), for example in the city of Zurich: It should not be at the expense of the quality of life and there should be enough green space within the settlement area.
  • But economical land use also means an optimal spatial allocation of the various land uses. A concentration of the buildings in a well-developed settlement area ensures economical land use far better than the creation of scattered small settlements, each with its own development.
  • The lack of economical land use is criticized. To this end, Hans Kollhoff , Professor of Architecture at the ETH: In Switzerland today, the destruction of the landscape with an almost militant driven attitude, ...

Voting requirement

The second goal of Swiss spatial planning is the coordination of all spatially relevant activities of the federal, cantonal and municipal authorities. It is obvious that successful coordination activity contributes to the economical use of the soil. Failure to coordinate, for example, between the arrangement of residential areas (municipal land use planning) and the construction of transport infrastructure (especially federal planning) can mean that both cannot be used appropriately. A lack of coordination leads to the impracticability of the planning and ultimately to bad investments.

Orientation towards the desired spatial development

The third goal requires the spatial development activities of the authorities to be geared towards the desired spatial development. The spatial planning concept required by this is laid down at the federal level in the “Principles of Spatial Planning Switzerland” and at the cantonal level in the structure plans. An important element of the spatial planning policy expressed in it is the focus on decentralized concentration , i.e. on a network of compact settlement areas of different sizes. This does not mean a settlement development only in the large agglomerations of the Swiss Central Plateau. The agglomerations and regional centers in the Alpine valleys also have significant growth potential. In pursuing these goals, the needs of people and the environment must be taken into account equally. The required forward-looking spatial planning is therefore not just an instrument of economic development, but also of preventive nature and environmental protection. It also has an impact on the protection of species : According to the Basel nature conservation biologist Bruno Baur, biodiversity is primarily reduced through overbuilding. Spatial planning also makes important contributions to housing policy, to promoting the disadvantaged regions of the country, to agricultural policy and to national defense . The law cannot stipulate which needs prevail in the event of a conflict. The answer has to be given by the planning processes, by a comprehensive weighing of interests by the planning authorities and, finally, by political decisions.

Planning principles as decision aids

Article 3 of the Spatial Planning Act provides a number of planning principles for weighing up the various spatial planning goals . These are decision criteria that should guide the weighing of interests. The planning principles do not in themselves constitute a conclusive and consistent system, so that weighting must be given among them on a case-by-case basis. The planning principles include, for example, the protection of the landscape, among other things by protecting the agricultural land. Furthermore, the design of the settlements according to the needs of the population and a limitation of the settlements are required. This principle should u. a. can be achieved through an appropriate allocation of residential and work areas as well as adequate development through the public transport network.

history

The first very rudimentary approaches to settlement planning in Switzerland came from the 1920s. Professor Hans Bernhard drafted what was probably the first federal model, which from today's perspective still spoke of "internal colonization" in an old-fashioned way. In the 1930s, z. B. a regional planning group in Zurich, and at the municipal level, the first zoning plans were drawn up throughout Switzerland , still largely in municipal self-government and without overriding legal requirements. The zoning was still fairly loose in accordance with the much larger land available at the time, and urban sprawl was still possible. In 1969 the population finally approved a constitutional article on spatial planning as a federal competence, thus creating the basis for the first federal spatial planning law (in force since January 1, 1980). In view of the very different circumstances and cultures, it was strongly federalist, so cantons and municipalities left a lot of planning freedom . The law was limited to planning principles as well as planning instruments and procedural rules. It is more detailed in the case of buildings outside the building zones, where a building ban applies to buildings not tied to the location. The law works in a greatly simplified manner with the following principles of action: The building area is separated from the non-building area, the building area is limited in area to the need of 15 years, the building area is to be concentrated and a building ban applies outside the building area. The law and its revisions have only been able to slow down the strong settlement expansion and scattering to a very limited extent. As early as 1984, Rudolf Stüdeli , Director of the Swiss Association for Regional Planning VLP-ASPAN, demanded that greater consideration for the scarce resource of land be “imperative”.

In 2012, the representatives of the Confederation, the cantons, cities and municipalities adopted the spatial concept for Switzerland , which was developed in a joint process lasting several years at all levels of the state , in which they agreed - legally non-binding - on fundamental goals and strategies for spatial development; In the sense of the desired comprehensive coordination, it should serve as a common orientation aid for all spatial planning.

On March 11, 2012, the Federal People's Initiative “Put an end to the endless construction of second homes!” on the restriction of second homes and so-called "cold beds" accepted with 50.6 percent yes by the people and the classes. The initiative was submitted by the «Helvetia Nostra» committee headed by animal and landscape conservationist Franz Weber and supported by various environmental protection organizations.

On March 3, 2013, a revision of the Spatial Planning Act was adopted in a referendum as an indirect counter-proposal to the federal popular initiative “Space for people and nature (landscape initiative)” . Inward settlement development (Art. 1) and an added value skimming of at least 20% (Art. 5) are now explicitly stipulated. In addition, oversized building zones are to be reduced (Art. 15).

The Federal People's Initiative "Stop urban sprawl - for sustainable settlement development (urban sprawl initiative)" launched by the Young Greens Switzerland wanted to freeze the building zones to the 2019 level. Re-zoning should have been compensated for by re-zoning at another location. The initiative was rejected on February 10, 2019 with 63.7% no votes.

statistics

  • The settlement area in Switzerland has roughly doubled since 1950. So the same amount of soil was built as in many centuries before put together. Today around 1.5 square meters of floor are built every second. A single-family house is completed every 43 minutes, an apartment every 14 minutes.
  • The main reasons for this development are population growth and the increasing need for space per person.
  • A third of all holiday homes in Switzerland are empty for more than 48 weeks a year, another third are unused for 44 to 48 weeks a year.
  • 37 percent of all settlement areas in Switzerland are outside the building zones .

literature

  • E. Bugmann: Script regional planning , HSG 1978/79
  • Federal Statistical Office, publications from 1997, 2007 and 2008 (area statistics)
  • Federal Office for Spatial Planning (ARE), 2007 ( buildings inside and outside the building zones )
  • Geoportal Bund geo.admin.ch Map of building zones harmonized
  • G. Danielli, R. Sonderegger, C. Gabathuler: Spatial planning in Switzerland. Rüegger Verlag, Zurich. ISBN 978-3-7253-1011-1 .
  • A. Griffel: Spatial planning and building law in a beneficial. Dike Verlag, Zurich / St. Gallen 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Federal Spatial Planning Act
  2. ↑ gr.ch: Buildings outside the building zone. Retrieved April 4, 2011 .
  3. ↑ rzu.ch: Building zones in small settlements (PDF). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 12, 2014 ; Retrieved April 4, 2011 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rzu.ch
  4. ^ Radio SRF 1 , broadcast Rendez-vous on December 19, 2013
  5. ^ Quote in French in a paper by CVP National Councilor Riklin
  6. ↑ Interview with Bruno Baur ( Memento of the original from January 12, 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. . Science magazine ( Memento of the original from January 12, 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. dated January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 11, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.srf.ch @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.srf.ch
  7. ↑ Article in Heimatschutz , No. 4 2010
  8. ↑ Helmut Stalder: Beautiful new spatial planning - why this urban sprawl occurred In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 22, 2019
  9. ↑ The settlement areas outside the building zones continue to increase. Federal Office for Spatial Development, November 29, 2019, accessed on December 10, 2019 .