After the groundbreaking Federal Court ruling on rezoning: This is the status of the municipalities
The Federal Court supports Lucerne‘s rezoning strategy. It turns out that many communities have already completed the process.
The Federal Court has made a groundbreaking decision: it rejects three complaints from Rickenbach. The canton of Lucerne announced this last week (we reported). The court judges the rezoning in the community to be legal and expedient in terms of spatial planning. It states in the judgment that the rezonings did not have to be carried out as part of an overall revision, as the complainants had criticized. Those affected could have had a sufficient legal hearing. And the municipal autonomy was not violated either.
Rickenbach has to reduce the size of the building zones more than what the population decided.
Image: Boris Bürgisser
The cantonal court had already dismissed the complaints in October 2023. These were directed against the decision of the Lucerne government council, which ordered the rezoning because the people of Rickenbach had not zoned out enough building zones at their 2021 community meeting. In total, twenty municipalities in the canton of Lucerne have oversized building zones. They have to convert building land into agricultural land, which causes it to lose massive amounts of value. The reason is the spatial planning law, which was clearly approved by the Swiss electorate in 2013 and is intended to stop urban sprawl.
“Decision strengthens acceptance of our approach”
It is the first time that the Federal Court has ruled on Lucerne’s rezoning strategy. For the canton, it is confirmation that the strategy meets federal requirements. The ruling has no direct impact because most rezoning communities have already completed the process. “But indirectly the highest court decision naturally strengthens acceptance of our approach,” says Pascal Wyss-Kohler, head of the legal department at the Construction, Environment and Economics Department (BUWD).
For him it is clear: “For those directly affected, the rezoning is and will remain emotionally and sometimes financially drastic.” The situation is different for the general public: “The fact that urban sprawl is being curbed in the canton of Lucerne meets with broad support, which is extremely high in the rezoning communities with ballot ballots. This was shown, for example, by the vote in Vitznau, in which over 70 percent of those entitled to vote approved the rezoning.
As soon as the zoning plans are legally binding, the affected properties are no longer in the construction zone. It is still unclear how this loss of value will be compensated. Wyss says: “So far there has been no verdict from the valuation commission. However, we assume that compensation will only be granted in isolated cases. In any case, these are financed from the value-added tax fund that the canton sets up in trust for the municipalities.
Four municipalities have not yet decided
An interim status shows: Currently, eight municipalities have completed the process and the rezonings are legally binding. Three cases are still pending in court: Schwarzenberg and Flühli before the cantonal court, Vitznau before the federal court. Five have already discussed the rezonings at community meetings and the documents are now being approved. “Overall, we are positive because the process is generally moving quickly,” says Wyss.
Four municipalities are declared as “pre-verified”. A decision is still pending here. In Greppen, for example, the public edition has been completed. “We are currently processing the objections. In spring 2025, the partial revision of the local planning together with the planned rezoning will be presented to the population at the ballot box for resolution,” says mayor Claudia Bernasconi. In Wauwil there are just a few square meters that have been designated as rezoning areas by the canton. “These will be dealt with in the ongoing local planning,” explains mayor Rolf Butz.
The situation in Triengen is different. A year ago, the municipal assembly postponed the final decision on the rezoning. The reason was a motion to reject it, which voters approved. And the municipality of Altbüron has been resisting the rezoning for years. In order to enforce this, the canton initiated a process two years ago to issue cantonal land use planning.
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