Biel/Nidau: Resistance to major Agglolac project
Resistance is forming against the large-scale Agglolac project that Mobimo wants to realize on the former Expo site in Biel. The association Stopp Agglolac wants to prevent the sale of the land, among other things.
The cities of Nidau and Biel and Mobimo have been pursuing plans for a city extension to the lake since 2012. On the former Expo site, between the Bay of Lake Biel and Nidau Castle, a new quarter with around 120,000 square meters of gross floor area is to be built.
The investment volume is put at CHF 400 to 500 million, of which CHF 100 million will be invested in public infrastructure. Nidau intends to finance this sum with the sale of the land off the lakeshore to Mobimo.
However, this deal between Nidau and Biel on the one hand and the real estate company is now being questioned, reports The Covenant. The association Stop Agglolac, which went public a few days ago, demands a revision of the plans.
According to the newspaper report, the association criticizes, among other things, the planned dense development of the area, including a 70-meter-high high-rise building, the financial risks for the communities, the contracts concluded unilaterally in favor of the investor and the exclusivity of the planned apartments.
In the city parliaments of Biel and Nidau, the party representatives who are behind Stop Agglolac also want to prevent the sale of land to Mobimo with motions, writes The Covenant. Instead, interested investors were to be granted building rights. In 2013, however, the two city councils had approved the framework conditions for the contracts with Mobimo.
Referendum end 2018
The mayor of Nidau, Sandra Hess (FDP), accuses the association Stop Agglolac of spreading untruths. For example, she told the newspaper, the financing of the infrastructure is quite clear. Moreover, Agglolac would not only create expensive apartments. Fifteen percent of the land is earmarked for cooperatives, she said.
The mayor of Biel, Erich Fehr (SP), rejects the accusation that the concerns of the population have so far been given too little consideration: "The participation procedure was much more extensive than required by law," he is told by the Confederation Cited.
A vote on the major project is to be held in Biel and Nidau at the end of 2018. Construction work could start in 2020 at the earliest and is expected to last until 2030.
