Severe setback for innovation park – surprising defeat for giant project in Dübendorf

Ruedi Baumann, Patrice Siegrist

Updated 1 hour ago—

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The promoters around the Zurich Council of States Ruedi Noser, government councilor Carmen Walker Späh (both FDP) and half the Swiss research elite had imagined it differently. The Zurich administrative court thumped the bill by overriding the cantonal design plan, as the court announced on Monday afternoon.

The total usable area for the planned innovation park is 410,000 square meters – that’s a good 50 football fields. The supporters spoke of a “new district of Dübendorf”. The main argument of the administrative court in its negative decision is: The sheer size of the project goes beyond the scope of a cantonal design plan.

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According to the cantonal planning and building law, such design plans should only refer to specific individual buildings and facilities, such as hospitals, middle schools or waste incineration plants. Due to its dimensions and the intended uses, the design plan thus creates “not a project-related, but a general construction zone”. The special purpose of promoting innovation is also unable to turn it into an individual project.

The administrative court further argues: According to the planning and construction law, the municipalities alone are responsible for setting general construction zones in the canton of Zurich. Therefore, the instrument of the cantonal design plan is not available for the intended planning.

In addition, the administrative court also judges the canton’s design plan to be inadmissible because it is largely in the canton’s agricultural zone. This violates the higher-level cantonal framework use planning. In principle, design plans may differ to a certain extent from this, but this option also only applies to individual projects. And this is the innovation park.

Remarkable: The extraordinarily high and publicly criticized court fee of CHF 50,000, which to the rivals, has now been reduced to CHF 18,000 by the administrative court.

Ruedi Noser as Promoter

The idea for the giant project in Dübendorf is strongly associated with one man: today’s FDP Council of States Ruedi Noser. He launched it after the army announced in 2004 that it wanted to close the military airfield in Dübendorf. With the support of the federal government, it should become part of a national network of innovation parks. The Zurich government council alone wants to invest CHF 217 million.

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In 2017, however, two private individuals lodged an objection to the cantonal design plan for the “Innovationspark Zürich”. The competitors are particularly bothered by the fact that such a large area should be converted into an innovation park without the voting population being able to have a say. In addition, they fear further aircraft and road noise. They also criticize that the legal basis is missing: the park violates the building and zoning regulations and encourages flooding.

«Urban monster»

The newcomers, who are both members of Forum Dübendorf Airfield, described the planned innovation park as an “urban monster”. The building course court dismissed the appeal in 2018. The recruits had contested this decision and had now been brought to justice by the administrative court. The canton now has the option of passing the judgment on to the next higher instance, the federal court.

It is still unclear whether he will do this. Dominik Bonderer, head of communications at Zurich’s construction department, says: “We will now carefully examine the judgment. We keep all options open. » And a spokeswoman for Carmen Walker Späh’s Department of Economic Affairs wrote on request: “We were very sorry to hear the judgment of the Administrative Court this morning. We will now analyze what this means for the idea of ​​Switzerland Innovation and for the Zurich Innovation Park. »

Posted at 11:45 am today–