Following the revision to the Spatial Planning Act, cantons have been obligated to “offset the value added from land-use designations with a minimum rates duty of 20%”, as explained in a press release issued by the Swiss government. The five-year time frame to implement this duty expires on April 30. For cantons which will fail to comply with this requirement, a freeze on land-use designations will apply from May 1, 2019.
This will now be the case for the cantons of Zurich, Zug, Lucerne, Geneva and Schwyz. While Geneva, Lucerne and Schwyz did implement the value-added duty on time, the press release explains that in all three cases it did not comply with the minimum level defined in the reworked Spatial Planning Act. In Zurich, the relevant draft bill is still being debated in parliament, meaning that an implementation would now be late. And in Zug a sufficient regulation has been agreed by the cantonal parliament, although in order to implement this it must first be ratified by a referendum, which is only scheduled to take place on May 19. All five cantons will now be subject to a freeze on land-use designations imposed by the Federal Council, although it will be lifted “provided that the cantons in question introduce or implement a regulation that complies with federal law”.
According to an article published in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a ban on land-use designations for building plots is on the cards for a further eight cantons. They have allegedly not been able to “adapt their cantonal structure plans in good time for approval from the federal government”. Ticino, Valais, Fribourg, Jura, Basel-Landschaft and Zug did in fact submit their plans, but it is not yet certain as to whether they will be approved in time. In contrast, Obwalden and Glarus are yet to submit any form of permit applications.
