Zurich: Does initiative for congress center at Carparkplatz fail?
According to a report in the NZZ, the initiative for a privately financed congress center on Zurich's Carparkplatz is in danger of failing. One month before the deadline, only half of the required signatures have been collected, according to the report.
The idea for a congress center on the central, 7,000 m² site in Zurich has been around for a long time. Mobimo and IG Kongress-Stadt Zürich presented their plans in November 2016. According to this, a building for conferences with up to 3,000 participants and additional rooms for events was to be built. A four-star conference hotel with at least 250 rooms and a two-star design hotel with around 300 rooms were also proposed. Other areas for "contemporary urban use" could also be added - residential forms were also conceivable - as well as a small amount of retail space. The investment volume was estimated at around CHF 250 million at the time.
However, the city parliament had passed a motion calling for "neighborhood-friendly development" for the site, i.e. the construction of affordable apartments and commercial premises. IG Kongress-Stadt then launched its popular initiative.
According to the NZZ the initiators are calling for the municipal land on which the parking lot currently stands to be rezoned as a center zone with a design plan obligation. The city should give the land to private partners on a building lease for at least 60 years. However, according to the newspaper report, only 1,500 of the required 3,000 votes were collected just over a month before the collection deadline. If the initiators do not manage to find enough signatories, the project will fail.
