City must check receipt of shops at Hechtplatz

Lots of support for traditional shops on Hechtplatz

hay. In the city’s redevelopment plans for the Theater am Hechtplatz, there is no longer any room for the two directly adjacent shops. The city council must now examine how the souvenir shop and the wine shop can be preserved despite the theater renovation. On Wednesday (June 15), the city parliament passed a corresponding proposal by Susanne Brunner (SVP) and Sebastian Vogel (FDP) with a clear majority.

The two shop operators were given notice of termination in spring at the end of March 2023. The city had argued that the statutory regulations in the listed theater required a second escape route and a wheelchair-accessible toilet. The transactions could not have been retained for any of the variants examined. Susanne Brunner, on the other hand, is convinced that restructuring is possible without having to close the shops.

The owners see their existence threatened if they have to leave their current location. Gaby and Bernhard Kron opened the “Bellevue-Alp” shortly before the start of the Corona pandemic, the souvenir shop has been there since 1962. The wine shop Gentner Weine also has a long history. It was founded in 1884 and owner Walter Hüppi has been running it for 22 years. Now the operators can hope for a continuation of the business.

The SBB can finally build in Tiefenbrunnen

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The building permit from the city of Zurich dates back to 2012. In that year, the SBB presented plans for a long new building at Tiefenbrunnen station, at the extreme end of Zurich’s Seefeld. It is the successor project to the «Hotz-Klotz», defamed after the name of its architect, which had failed.

Despite its name “Vuelo”, Spanish for flight, the new construction project could not take off. On the contrary: After objections from the district, a ten-year odyssey through the authorities began. This has now come to an end in Lausanne. As reported by SBB, the Federal Supreme Court dismissed all substantive and procedural complaints against the project in a decision dated May 10. The building permit is thus legally binding.

Most recently, an individual initiative called for a mandatory design plan, which the Zurich municipal council passed on. The SBB appealed against this decision and the building appeals court overturned it. The Zurich administrative court came to the opposite conclusion in the second instance. The Federal Supreme Court will decide on this in a separate procedure. According to the SBB, however, the top judges supported the view taken by the city council at the time that the outcome of the project is irrelevant because it was approved before the discussion about a design plan began.

«Vuelo» consists of a 135 meter long office building designed by Zurich architects Spillmann Echsle. Retail shops and restaurants will move into the ground floor. With the new building on the approximately 6,500 square meter site, the station square will be redesigned and traffic calmed down. According to the SBB, construction will start in spring 2024, and the building will be occupied in mid-2026.

For the time being no money from the federal government for the extended Glattalbahn

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Only in April did the Federal Council give the go-ahead for the extension of the Glattalbahn in Kloten. At that time, he gave the Glattal Transport Authority (VBG) permission to continue planning with the so-called infrastructure concession.

The cold shower follows two months later. When the consultation for the fourth generation agglomeration programs was opened on Friday (10 June), the state government downgraded this project to priority B. This means that the Federal Council does not want to co-finance it in the near future. This is despite the fact that the VBG is currently working on the construction project that will form the basis for the approval of the cantonal loan.

For the canton of Zurich, this rejection comes as a complete surprise, according to a joint statement from the Department of Economic Affairs and the Department of Construction. “We are very surprised by the Federal Council’s decision and cannot understand it at first glance,” said Economics Director Carmen Walker Späh.

It is planned to extend the Glattalbahn from today’s terminus at the airport’s freight yard through Kloten by 3.7 kilometers to the Steinacker development area. In addition to the Glattalbahn, the project also includes the construction of a main bicycle connection with a separate footpath and urgent flood protection measures.

The entire project will cost around CHF 440 million. Since the canton of Zurich expects a contribution of 40 percent, 140 million francs are now missing. The extension of the Glattalbahn will probably be taken into account in the fifth generation program. However, according to the announcement, this can delay the previously planned start of construction in 2026 by at least two years.

The Department of Economic Affairs wants to ensure that the project is still included in the current program. Overall, the Federal Council is proposing contributions of CHF 300 million for various transport projects in the canton of Zurich. The best known are the construction of the tram to Affoltern and the fast cycle route in the Limmat valley.

The end of new oil and gas heating systems is approaching

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In November 2021, the electorate of the Canton of Zurich approved the amended Energy Act. This means that the installation of oil and gas heating systems in new buildings is no longer permitted, which is rarely the case in reality. But even in existing buildings, the replacement of the heating system at the end of its service life is now only permitted with sustainable systems such as a heat pump, via a district heating network and with a wood chip or pellet heating system.

Now the government council has decided that the law and the corresponding ordinance will come into force on September 1st. The original date was early July. However, instructing the municipalities, which have to implement the revision as the approval authority, took more time.

The notification (June 8) points out that the date of approval is decisive for compliance with the new provisions, not the time when the application is submitted. According to the cantonal building department, this is common practice. Some homeowners had used the period since the vote to replace oil or gas heating one-to-one. But with the sharp rise in oil and gas prices as a result of the war in Ukraine, that has become less beneficial.

Another symptom of the crisis affects the heating industry: delivery bottlenecks. In its letter, the government also mentions longer waiting periods for new heating systems. Therefore, a replacement in the current situation should be planned with particular foresight. If there is an unexpected failure of a heating system, mobile rental heating systems are available on the market to bridge the gap.

Originally, the building department also wanted to simplify the approval process for the installation of heat pumps at the same time as the Energy Act came into force. In this way, she wants to reduce the administrative effort for the client and limit the possibilities for objections. This change is not expected to come into effect until early 2023. The reason is that there are also efforts at federal level to streamline the procedure in the noise protection ordinance.

The permit for a solar system should also be easier to obtain in the future. For new buildings in the canton of Zurich, it is now the case that they have to generate part of their electricity needs themselves, usually with solar panels.

City will ban beer advertising at pubs in the future

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City of Zurich restaurants and bars will no longer be allowed to put beer signs on their facades from next July. As reported by the Tamedia newspapers on Tuesday, the city council has adjusted the regulations for advertising on public land. Existing beer signs – as there are many in Zurich’s district 4 – do not have to be removed. The ban only applies to new applications.

According to the Tamedia newspapers, the city council justified the measure with youth protection and drug prevention. In addition, displaying the beer brand has lost its importance. Only a few new applications were received.

Switzerland’s leading brewery, Feldschlösschen, was surprised by the decision, after all these signs have a traditional meaning, which is why Feldschlösschen does not see the decision positively, says media spokeswoman Gabriela Gerber.

It is therefore important to keep an eye on how the situation develops in the future, because the decision could be used as a precedent for future jurisdiction, according to Gerber. The Swiss Brewery Association (SBV) is also amazed at the decision. One is also convinced that this ban achieves nothing in terms of prevention policy, says SBV director Marcel Kreber.

Dissatisfaction was also spreading on Twitter on Tuesday. The FDP politician Përparim Avdili describes the ban as a “crazy idea”. Sandro Frei, president of the canton’s Young Liberals, also wonders whether the young people would really drink less beer because of this ban. The political reactions followed on Wednesday: The FDP local councilors Flurin Capaul and Dominique Zygmont submitted a postulate in the evening in which they demanded that the ban be removed. Susanne Brunner and Samuel Balsiger from the SVP did the same.

In addition to the ban on beer signs, the city is also extending the advertising ban for tobacco and alcohol. In the future, “other addictive substances with a comparable risk potential” will also be affected, write the Tamedia newspapers. According to the Office for Urban Development, this primarily means electronic cigarettes.