The vote is supposed to be about riverbank protection – but the initiative committee includes numerous opponents of the stadium project.
The first ball should have rolled in the new stadium this summer. But the project is making slow progress through the legal process.
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Zurich is waiting for its football stadium, and with every day of waiting the situation becomes more absurd. 1421 days have now passed since the vote in which almost 60 percent of those eligible to vote voted in favor of building the stadium on the Hardturm site – for the second time, notably because the project’s opponents forced a second vote on the development plan.
The stadium builders have repeatedly tried to appeal to the opponents of the project to “finally show themselves to be fair losers.” In vain. The legal dispute drags on, although the opponents have so far lost all of their cases.
The case is currently before the administrative court – again for almost a year. And now there is a ballot in the city of Zurich on September 22nd that could put the project at risk again: the so-called riverbank protection initiative, which is aimed precisely at the stadium project.
Stadium opponents do not reveal their identity
But who are the opponents of the project and who are the targets of the appeals for fairness?
The question is not easy to answer. The opposition is keen to remain anonymous. This is especially true for the Pro Limmatraum association, which is reluctant to provide public information about itself.
The club is at the forefront of the fight against the construction project and in particular the planned high-rise buildings. The project, called “Ensemble”, includes a stadium for 18,000 spectators, a cooperative housing estate with non-profit housing and two high-rise buildings. It cannot be financed without high-rise buildings.
The online platform “Tsüri” has made public that the Pro Limmatraum association actively searched for complainants against the stadium construction in a mailing to its members. It later informed its members that an appeal against the stadium construction had been filed. It is not known who the specific complainants are.
The article mentions several members of the Pro Limmatraum association. These include the red-green IG Freiräume and IG am Wasser, and a few bourgeois representatives such as Felix E. Müller, former editor-in-chief of the “NZZ am Sonntag”.
When asked, Müller confirmed his membership in the association. He emphasized that it consists of “a broad group of people,” many from left-wing circles. He himself is not the complainant. However, there is an appeal from numerous individuals, which was also signed by the Pro Limmatraum association as a legal entity.
The «Tsüri» article also mentions the entrepreneur Urs Zweifel, nephew of the deceased Zweifel founder and board member of Zweifel Pomy-Chips AG. This connection has led to Football fans have called for a boycott of Zweifel Pomy chips.
However, Zweifel made it clear to the NZZ that he had never been a member of the Pro Limmatraum association. He had merely “supported the cause financially via the association.” He had not personally lodged a complaint against the stadium construction.
The question of opposition is also interesting in view of the upcoming vote on September 22nd. The so-called riverbank protection initiative is intended to protect the banks of the Limmat from high-rise buildings. “Ensemble” is the only high-rise project planned there. That is striking.
It is also striking that there are connections between the voting committee of the riverbank protection initiative and the members of the Pro Limmatraum association. Even the websites of the two associations have the same structure.
There are many opponents of the “Ensemble” project on the voting committee. Among them are Martin Schlup, the president of Pro Limmatraum. Lisa Kromer, president of IG Freiräume Zürich-West, who fought the development plan at the ballot box. GLP cantonal councilor Sandra Bienek, spokesperson for the first “Ensemble” vote in 2019. Or the two Greens Markus Knauss and Gabi Petri, who, as VCS officials, brought the very first stadium project of 2003 to its knees with appeals. Felix E. Müller and Urs Zweifel are not part of the committee.
“Riparian protection” is aimed exclusively at “ensemble”
What makes the situation ungrateful from the point of view of voters before the next ballot is that the effects of the riverbank protection initiative on the stadium project are not crystal clear.
The construction of high-rise buildings should be banned – not just directly on the river bank, but in a strip that is four times the width of the Limmat. This is the exact distance from the Limmat to the planned high-rise buildings of the stadium project.
The city of Zurich takes the view that the stadium construction, as a project that has already been decided upon, would not be affected by the initiative. The project would therefore be too far along in the timeline to be torpedoed by the popular initiative.
However, the text of the initiative explicitly mentions “existing buildings” which would not fall under the scope of the initiative. However, the stadium and the two high-rise buildings are clearly not “existing buildings”. Law professor Alain Griffel told the NZZ about a year ago that he recognized a residual risk.
The initiators of the riverbank protection initiative promise that their concern has nothing to do with the stadium project, but is only about protecting recreational areas. But the “Ensemble” project team is alarmed.
Spokesman Markus Spillmann says: “If the initiative is accepted, there is a risk of further legal dispute over implementation and thus further delays.”
Spillmann describes the initiative as an “attempt at further obstruction”. It is almost impossible to interpret it any other way, especially since no other high-rise projects are planned on the Limmat. The initiative is therefore aimed directly at this project – and no other.
When the initiative was discussed in the city parliament, the stadium issue was not a topic in the debate. Why? FDP councilor Roger Suter, a member of the relevant committee in the city parliament, says that the city council had once again emphasized in its instructions that the initiative would not affect the stadium project.
Apart from that, the issue is “completely at odds with the landscape,” says Suter. There are already a number of requirements for riverbank protection. “If the initiative were to be accepted, construction would become even more complicated because another opportunity to object to high-rise projects would be created.”
Counterproposal without danger for the stadium
The “Ensemble” project team must have been relieved to hear of the discussions in the city parliament, as the city council has formulated a counter-proposal. This no longer includes the distance line to the Limmat in question.
And the counterproposal has a good chance. SP, AL and the Greens are in favour. The Greens are in favour of both the initiative and the counterproposal, but if it comes to a tie-breaker, they are also in favour of the counterproposal. A centre-right alliance of SVP, FDP, GLP and Mitte rejects both.
However, the stadium initiators are unlikely to be euphoric even if the vote goes in their favor. They are still in the middle of a laborious legal process and have only overcome one of probably six legal hurdles.
This first hurdle was the success before the building appeal court. This is followed by the administrative court and probably the Federal Court.
Only then would the development plan become legally binding. And only then could the city issue a building permit – which could then again be contested through three instances.
Once the building permit is legally binding, it will take one year for the stadium and cooperative building to be constructed. It will take another two years for the high-rise buildings to be finished.
After the second stadium vote in 2020, FCZ President Ancillo Canepa had dreamed of having the stadium open from summer 2024. Then the ball would be rolling in the new arena. Instead, leaden paralysis continues to hang over the Hardturm area.
