Canton resumes plans for center development in Sarnen
A plot of land in Sarnen, currently used mainly as a parking lot, is to be redeveloped with apartments, offices and stores. The landowner is the canton of Obwalden, which will soon hold a project competition.
The site, which is to be built on, is centrally located between the town hall, the Hotel Metzgeren, Brünigstrasse, Rathausgasse and Sarneraa and is about 3,300 square meters in size. The results of a test planning envisage that not a large-scale single building, but several smaller buildings will be built, the Obwalden State Chancellery informs. The parking spaces are to be accommodated in an underground garage with access from Brünigstrasse. In the foreground for a possible use are residential, offices and commercial and possibly a smaller public use.
A project competition with pre-selection will be announced in mid-September 2016; teams of planners can apply in an open procedure. The jury selected by the government council will then choose eight to ten teams to work on the task. The winning project is to be selected by mid-2017, after which a neighborhood plan procedure is planned. As the planning and approval phase will take around four to five years, construction is expected to start in 2021 at the earliest.
According to the state chancellery, it has not yet been decided whether the canton of Obwalden will act as the developer itself or whether it will hand over the project to an investor once the district planning has been completed.
The plans to create a convincing urban development for the area date back to 2004, when an initial study was carried out. After the flood disaster of August 2005, however, the plans were put on hold. In 2014, the canton resumed the project, and test planning and a feasibility study were carried out as part of a research project by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. (ah)
