Bureaucratic hurdles: Zurich’s city council wants to make it easier to build car-free settlements

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The municipal parking regulations generally prescribe that a minimum number of parking spaces must be created when constructing apartments. There are only exceptions for car-poor and car-free residential functions; This requires, among other things, a mobility concept and a cadastral registration.

This would prevent such projects, Michael Schmid (AL) criticized in the council debate. The trend is that fewer and fewer people in Zurich have a car – and yet, for the sake of simplicity, oversized underground parking garages are built in almost all new buildings. Concrete is used there, which hinders the city’s climate policy and ecological goals.

Schmid therefore called in a motion to make it easier to build car-free and car-free apartments. They should be at least as easy to implement as homes with parking spaces are today.

The municipal council spoke out against the motion because it would conflict with higher cantonal law. However, in the spirit of this initiative, he is working on adapting existing regulations and guidelines, says municipal councilor Simone Brander (SP).

For the SVP, FDP and Center, the motion was excluded not only for legal reasons, but also for substantive reasons. The aim of the AL is a car-free city, which is an anti-citizen policy, according to Johann Widmer (SVP). Fewer parking spaces does not automatically mean fewer cars, but also more search traffic, according to Stephan Iten (SVP).

However, the majority of the council supported a motion with a slightly weaker text, which no longer considers car-poor residential facilities as a standard option, but only as an option. It cannot be the case that bureaucratic obstacles stand in the way of housing options for car-poor settlements, says Severin Meier (SP). (SDA)

Source:Blick