Mar 25, 2012
Parliament has agreed a change to the law aimed at reducing the land area that can be developed. It comes in response to a people’s initiative demanding a 20-year building freeze.
There was much debate about construction in mountain areas in the run-up to the March 11 vote on a second homes initiative, which was narrowly passed by voters. But there are also large numbers of development projects underway in lowland areas.
To the visitor, Switzerland could appear to be one huge building site. Everywhere, or almost everywhere, new buildings – mainly private homes – are springing up like mushrooms.
Figures from the Federal Statistics Office back up this impression. Last year 67,750 new homes were built, two per cent more than in 2010. And since 2004, around 10,000 one-family houses have sprung up every year.
The rate of construction is partly due to the historically low mortgage rates in Switzerland. These are so low that repayments are often less than the rent on an apartment or house.
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Twelve football fields
Environmental protection organisations condemn the urban sprawl, pointing out that the amount of land developed every day amounts to the equivalent of 12 football pitches. In an attempt to curb the building trend they launched a people’s initiative, “For the countryside”, in 2007.
The main demand is that the total area under construction in Switzerland does not increase for 20 years. Philippe Roch, the former head of the Federal Environment Office and a member of the initiative committee, believes urgent action is needed.
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The government and a majority of parliamentarians reject the initiative, which they deem too extreme and too inflexible.
In its place they have put forward a counter-proposal in the form of a revision of the federal zoning law. This reform proposes that areas for construction be defined in such a way as to meet the demands of the next 15 years.
It could result in existing development areas or those that are oversized or badly located being scaled back.
The other key measure concerns taxation. Owners of land which gains value will have to pay a tax corresponding to at least 20 per cent of the increase in value. The proceeds will be used to finance land use changes.
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Enough land
Switzerland’s population is on the rise and nearing the eight million mark. Given this, would it not be a bad move to reduce or even stop land development?
Not necessarily, as the country has enough development areas for several years to come.
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But this doesn’t mean that there is no shortage of building land.
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For environmentalists, the solution lies in increased urban density. “If we have to deal with 70,000 extra inhabitants a year, let’s not spread them out just anywhere,” said Roch.
“Let’s try to build up our towns a little and construct attractive buildings. Before dealing with population growth we need to make sure we preserve the maximum of space and quality of life.”
Rumley also sees increased density as a key to the problem, but not necessarily in towns.
“City centres have already been built up. It’s the suburban areas that we now have to build up. Even housing developments could have greater density. Instead of creating more developments, we could reduce the areas of parceled land and try to squeeze in a second building or small construction, for example for a childless couple.”
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Link para o artigo completo:
International Service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/internal_affairs/Swiss_seek_to_limit_urban_sprawl.html?cid=32339240
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