Administrative court slows down the innovation park

The Dübendorf Innovation Park cannot be built as planned. That was decided by the Zurich Administrative Court. The canton does not have the competence to issue a cantonal design plan for an area of this size.

The cantonal administrative court is withdrawing the legal basis for the planned construction of the Zurich Innovation Park. As the court wrote in a statement on Tuesday, with a ruling on July 8th, it revoked the cantonal building department's ruling on the cantonal design plan for the innovation park.

Such a design plan is only possible for specific individual buildings or individual systems. The design plan for the innovation park with its perimeter of 36 hectares and a total usable area of up to 410,000 square meters does not fall below that. The “special purpose of promoting innovation” does not change anything. "Due to its dimensions and the intended uses, the design plan does not create a project-related, but a general construction zone," says the message.

The canton has thus exceeded its competencies: Only the municipalities are responsible for defining general building zones. “That is why the cantonal design plan is not available for the intended planning.” In addition, the judges believe that the design plan violates the cantonal framework plan because most of the site is in the cantonal agricultural zone.

The building management set the design plan on August 9, 2017. Two residents appealed to the cantonal building course court, but were rejected. Its decision is now also overturned by the administrative court. An appeal can now be made to the Federal Supreme Court against the judgment of the Administrative Court.

The idea of an innovation park in Zurich on the site of the Dübendorf military airfield was the inspiration behind the creation of the Switzerland Innovation Parks . While such parks in Aargau, in the greater Basel area, in Biel, in western and central Switzerland are already making good progress, the idea generator is now in danger of failing. The Zurich government had already applied for a loan of CHF 217.6 million in 2018 for the construction, development and support of the innovation park in Dübendorf.