Zurich: Partial enactment of the BZO 2016 draws closer
The Zurich Department of Buildings has brought forward the planned date of a partial enactment to November 1, 2018. Building applications that wish to benefit from the advantages of the BZO 2016 can already be submitted now.
For some time now, it has been apparent that developers are waiting to submit building applications in order to benefit from the advantages of the BZO 2016 once it has come into force, according to the Department of Buildings. Therefore, everything possible has been done to ensure that a partial entry into force could already take place on November 1, 2018. "The BZO 2016 creates more quality for the growing city," says City Councilor André Odermatt.
After the summer vacations, the city council wants to put the BZO 2016 into force. This could still be appealed on formal grounds. However, the building department does not expect this to happen.
The Office for Building Permits (AfB) is now expecting an increased number of building applications, as developers want to benefit from the opportunity to use the qualities of the BZO 2016. The office is therefore accepting building applications based on the BZO 2016 with immediate effect and is advertising the applications in the official gazettes. However, the prescribed deadlines for the processing of the building applications would only begin to run after the entry into force had taken place. Building permits can only be issued once the BZO 2016 has become legally binding, emphasizes the City of Zurich.
The fact that the partial entry into force of the BZO 2016 is getting closer is due to an out-of-court settlement between the City of Zurich and the Zurich Heritage Society, which settled the most weighty appeal proceedings. The city then filed an application with the Building Appeals Court to have the appeal proceedings dismissed.
The Zurich Heritage Society had filed the appeal because it had found that the inventory of Swiss sites worthy of protection (ISOS) had not been sufficiently taken into account. In a settlement, the city and Heimatschutz agreed to review 16 selected ISOS individual elements to determine whether they should be included in the inventory of art and cultural-historical protected objects of municipal importance. During the next inventory review, objects of the ISOS building groups will also be examined. Finally, the ISOS protection goals are to be included in the considerations for the next partial revisions of the BZO. After this agreement, Heimatschutz had withdrawn its appeal.
