- The Swisscanto Investment Foundation did not get through to the federal court with its arguments in favor of the residential construction project on the Bürgli site in Zurich-Enge.
- The Lausanne judges came to the conclusion that the existing noise pollution was not given enough consideration.
- The project envisages the construction of 124 apartments. The city of Zurich had previously given the green light for the construction project – with a special permit.
The reason given by the Federal Supreme Court for the negative decision: Most of the windows that were planned to face the street would have been too loud. Specifically, during the project, the noise limit values would have been exceeded by up to five decibels at night in 80 percent of the apartments.
Because of the high level of noise pollution, the corresponding area is in sensitivity level III – the highest level still permitted for residential areas. For pure residential areas, level II is generally provided, as the Federal Supreme Court stated in a judgment published on Wednesday. Although the immission limit values in the planning area are already set high, they are exceeded at night in 99 of the 124 planned apartments.
The judgment of the federal court
Nevertheless, a special permit for the construction was granted. According to the federal court, this should not have happened. The competent authorities had not adequately examined whether the interests in the implementation of the project outweighed them. When justifying the exemption, not only individual public interests or general reasons should be listed, which can practically always be listed.
Possibilities for noise reduction
Rather, as part of the balancing of interests, it must also be taken into account whether there are ways of reducing the noise at the source. According to the federal judges, speed reductions or the installation of noise-absorbing road surfaces are also possible.
To exclude these possibilities, because they would not lie in the decision-making area of the client, is not permissible. In a building project like this one, the noise factor should be given great importance right from the start – for example when a project competition is tendered. When submitting the elaborated project, the client must be able to justify which options they examined and the reasons for choosing this or that solution.