Basel: Green light for Wohnstadt project
The Court of Appeal of the Canton of Basel-Stadt has cleared the way for a project by the Wohnstadt building cooperative in the Wettstein district. Residents had blocked the superstructure for around four years.
The Basler Bau- und Verwaltungsgenossenschaft Wohnstadt is planning a residential development at Riehenring 3. On a largely undeveloped site in the inner courtyard of the Wettsteinallee/Riehenring/Turnerstrasse area, which has so far been used by the municipal sanitation department, 36 apartments are to be built.
The plans for the redensification project first became known about four years ago, and residents have been fighting against it ever since. They argued that they had been inadequately informed and that the four-story building was too high. Wohnstadt disagrees: the project by Jessen Vollenweider Architects, which emerged from a study commission, does without an attic and remains below the permissible utilization for Zone 4, to which the inner courtyard has been allocated for decades.
The construction project has been ready for execution and approved since September 2015. All objections to the building application were rejected. After the Building Appeals Commission rejected an appeal against the granting of the building permit, the Court of Appeal also gave the green light for construction at the end of December. According to the court, the project submitted is in compliance with the law, and all appeals were therefore dismissed. Construction of the 36 apartments is scheduled to start this year, Wohnstadt says.
