Municipal vote Zurich voters reject ban on high-rise buildings on the Limmat and lake

In the city of Zurich, high-rise buildings on the lake and along the Limmat will not be banned. The voters of the city of Zurich clearly rejected the shoreline protection initiative and instead accepted the milder counter-proposal.

The counter-proposal from the city council and parliament was passed by 64,062 votes to 38,483. This corresponds to 62.47 percent of votes in favor.

The initiative was rejected by 69,478 voters and approved by only 33,841. The No vote was therefore 67.25 percent, while the turnout was 45 percent.

A yes vote would have made the Hardturm high-rise buildings impossible

The city council felt that the riverbank protection initiative was too narrowly defined and misleading. It wanted to ban high-rise buildings over 25 meters high around Lake Zurich and along the Limmat.

The counter-proposal now adopted by the city and municipal council took up the basic water protection concerns of the initiators, but is formulated more generally and takes into account all bodies of water in the urban area - not just the lake and the Limmat.

However, the counter-proposal does not prohibit high-rise buildings close to the banks. According to the city council, the high-rise guidelines on the lake and on most stretches of the Limmat ensure that these are regulated.

The initiative made headlines because the high-rise buildings belonging to the planned Hardturm stadium would probably not have been able to be realized if the Yes vote had been cast. The project would then have been almost impossible to finance.

SDA