Federal Act
on Spatial Planning
(Spatial Planning Act, SPA)¹

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes shall en­sure that the land is used eco­nom­ic­ally and that build­ing areas are sep­ar­ate from the areas where build­ing is not per­mit­ted.⁵ They shall co­ordin­ate their activ­it­ies that have a spa­tial im­pact and im­ple­ment a sys­tem of set­tle­ments that en­sures the de­sired de­vel­op­ment of the coun­try. They shall take ac­count of the nat­ur­al en­vir­on­ment and of the needs of the pop­u­la­tion and the eco­nomy.

² By means of spa­tial and re­gion­al plan­ning meas­ures, they shall in par­tic­u­lar sup­port ef­forts to:

a.

pro­tect nat­ur­al re­sources such as soil, air, wa­ter, forests and the land­scape;

a^bis.⁶

pro­mote in­ward set­tle­ment de­vel­op­ment, while en­sur­ing an ap­pro­pri­ate qual­ity of hous­ing;

b.⁷

cre­ate com­pact set­tle­ments;

b^bis.⁸

cre­ate and main­tain the re­gion­al re­quire­ments for the eco­nomy;

c.

en­cour­age so­cial, eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al life in the vari­ous re­gions of the coun­try, and pro­mote ap­pro­pri­ate de­cent­ral­isa­tion of set­tle­ment and eco­nom­ic activ­it­ies;

d.

guar­an­tee the basis for the pro­vi­sion of suf­fi­cient food sup­plies for the coun­try;

e.

en­sure the gen­er­al de­fence of the coun­try;

f.⁹

pro­mote the in­teg­ra­tion of for­eign­ers and so­cial co­he­sion.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion, can­tons and com­munes shall plan their activ­it­ies that have a spa­tial im­pact, and co­ordin­ate their plan­ning ef­forts.

² They shall take ac­count of the spa­tial im­pact of their oth­er activ­it­ies.

³ Au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for plan­ning shall en­sure that sub­or­din­ate au­thor­it­ies are giv­en the ne­ces­sary free­dom to ful­fil their re­mit.

¹ Au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for plan­ning shall take ac­count of the fol­low­ing prin­ciples:

² The coun­tryside must be pre­served. In par­tic­u­lar:

a.¹⁰

suf­fi­cient areas of suit­able ar­able land, in par­tic­u­lar crop ro­ta­tion areas, should be re­served for ag­ri­cul­ture;

b.

set­tle­ments, build­ings and in­stall­a­tions should in­teg­rate well in­to the land­scape;

c.

lakesides and ri­verb­anks should be kept free and ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic;

d.

nat­ur­al land­scapes and re­cre­ation­al areas should be con­served;

e.

forests should be able to ful­fil their func­tions.

³ Set­tle­ments must be ar­ranged ac­cord­ing to the needs of their in­hab­it­ants and their ex­pan­sion must be lim­ited. In par­tic­u­lar:

a.¹¹

res­id­en­tial and work­ing areas should be suit­ably loc­ated ad­ja­cent to each oth­er and mainly planned in loc­a­tions that are ad­equately served by pub­lic trans­port;

a^bis.¹²

meas­ures should be taken to make bet­ter use of un­used or in­suf­fi­ciently used areas in build­ing zones and of op­por­tun­it­ies to con­sol­id­ate the set­tle­ment area;

b.

res­id­en­tial areas should as far as pos­sible be pro­tec­ted from harm­ful emis­sions or nuis­ances such as air pol­lu­tion, noise or vi­bra­tion;

c.

cycle-paths and foot­paths should be cre­ated and main­tained;

d.

fa­vour­able con­di­tions for the sup­ply of goods and ser­vices should be en­sured;

e.

set­tle­ments should con­tain nu­mer­ous open spaces and trees.

⁴ Ap­pro­pri­ate loc­a­tions must be chosen for build­ings and in­stall­a­tions which are pub­lic, or in the pub­lic in­terest. In par­tic­u­lar:

a.

re­gion­al needs should be con­sidered and un­desir­able dis­par­it­ies re­duced;

b.

fa­cil­it­ies such as schools, re­cre­ation­al centres and pub­lic ser­vices should be eas­ily ac­cess­ible to in­hab­it­ants;

c.

ad­verse im­pacts on the nat­ur­al en­vir­on­ment, the pop­u­la­tion and the eco­nomy should be avoided or min­im­ised.

¹ The au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for plan­ning shall in­form the pub­lic of the ob­ject­ives and pro­gress of plan­ning un­der this Act.

² They shall en­sure that the pub­lic are able to par­ti­cip­ate ad­equately in the plan­ning pro­cess.

³ Plans un­der this Act shall be made avail­able for pub­lic in­spec­tion.

¹ Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion shall reg­u­late ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion pro­ced­ures for ma­jor ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages res­ult­ing from plan­ning un­der this Act.

^1bis Plan­ning ad­vant­ages shall be com­pensated for at a rate of at least 20 per cent. Com­pens­a­tion be­comes due on the de­vel­op­ment or dis­pos­al of the par­cel of land. Can­ton­al law shall or­gan­ise the com­pens­a­tion sys­tem at least so as to com­pensate for the ad­ded value at­trib­ut­able to per­man­ently as­sign­ing land to a build­ing zone.¹³

^1ter The pro­ceeds shall be used for meas­ures un­der para­graph 2 or for oth­er spa­tial plan­ning meas­ures un­der Art­icle 3, in par­tic­u­lar para­graphs 2 let­ter a and 3 let­ter a^bis.¹⁴

^1quater In cal­cu­lat­ing the charge, the plan­ning ad­vant­age res­ult­ing from be­ing as­signed to a build­ing zone shall be re­duced by the amount paid with­in a reas­on­able peri­od to ac­quire a re­place­ment ag­ri­cul­tur­al build­ing for per­son­al use.¹⁵

^1quin­quies Can­ton­al law may waive the charge if:

a.

a loc­al au­thor­ity would be li­able to pay; or

b.

the an­ti­cip­ated in­come from the charge does not jus­ti­fy the cost of its col­lec­tion.¹⁶

^1sex­ies The charge paid may be de­duc­ted from the gain as an al­low­able ex­pense when cal­cu­lat­ing any cap­it­al gains tax on land.¹⁷

² Full com­pens­a­tion shall be paid if plan­ning activ­it­ies lead to re­stric­tions of title which amount to ex­pro­pri­ation.

³ The can­tons may re­quire that the pay­ment of com­pens­a­tion in the case of re­stric­tions of title must be entered in the Land Re­gister.

¹ …¹⁸

² When pre­par­ing their struc­ture plans, the can­tons shall de­vise guidelines by which they es­tab­lish which areas:¹⁹

a.

are suit­able for ag­ri­cul­ture;

b.

are of spe­cial beauty, valu­able, or are im­port­ant for re­cre­ation or as nat­ur­al hab­it­ats;

b^bis.²⁰

are suit­able for pro­du­cing elec­tri­city from re­new­able en­er­gies;

c.

are ser­i­ously en­dangered by nat­ur­al haz­ards or harm­ful emis­sions.

³ In the guidelines, they shall also provide in­form­a­tion on the cur­rent con­di­tion and pre­vi­ous de­vel­op­ment of:²¹

a.²²

their set­tle­ment area;

b.²³

trans­port;

b^bis.²⁴

pro­vi­sion of pub­lic util­it­ies, in par­tic­u­lar elec­tri­city from re­new­able en­er­gies;

b^ter.²⁵

pub­lic build­ings and in­stall­a­tions;

c.²⁶

their ar­able land.

⁴ They shall take ac­count of fed­er­al strategies and sec­tor­al plans, the struc­ture plans of neigh­bour­ing can­tons and oth­er re­gion­al de­vel­op­ment policies and plans.

¹ The can­tons shall work with the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies and neigh­bour­ing can­tons in­so­far as their activ­it­ies co­in­cide.

² If the can­tons can­not agree among them­selves or with the Con­fed­er­a­tion on how to co­ordin­ate activ­it­ies that have a spa­tial im­pact, they may re­quest that the con­cili­ation pro­ced­ure (Art. 12) be ap­plied.

³ Bor­der can­tons shall seek col­lab­or­a­tion with the re­gion­al au­thor­it­ies of the neigh­bour­ing coun­try in­so­far as their activ­it­ies may have cross-bor­der im­pact.

¹ Each can­ton shall pre­pare a struc­ture plan, which shall define the fol­low­ing as a min­im­um:

a.

how the can­ton aims to de­vel­op in spa­tial terms;

b.

how activ­it­ies that have a spa­tial im­pact are to be co­ordin­ated with a view to achiev­ing de­vel­op­ment tar­gets;

c.

the pro­posed sched­ule and re­sources for ful­filling tasks.

² Pro­jects with sig­ni­fic­ant ef­fects on space and the en­vir­on­ment must have a basis in the struc­ture plan.

¹ The struc­ture plan shall define the fol­low­ing in re­la­tion to set­tle­ments:

a.

the over­all size of the set­tle­ment area, where it is loc­ated in the can­ton and how its ex­pan­sion is co­ordin­ated at re­gion­al level;

b.

how set­tle­ments and trans­port are co­ordin­ated, and how land will be de­veloped in a ra­tion­ally and space-sav­ing man­ner;

c.

how high-qual­ity in­ward set­tle­ment de­vel­op­ment will be achieved;

d.

how it will be guar­an­teed that build­ing zones meet the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 15; and

e.

how set­tle­ment re­new­al will be in­creased.

² and ³…²⁹

The struc­ture plan shall des­ig­nate suit­able areas and stretches of wa­ter that may be used to gen­er­ate re­new­able en­er­gies.

¹ Struc­ture plans are bind­ing on the au­thor­it­ies.

² If cir­cum­stances change, new tasks arise or if a gen­er­ally bet­ter solu­tion is pos­sible, struc­ture plans shall be re­viewed and, if ne­ces­sary, amended.

³ As a rule, struc­ture plans shall be com­pre­hens­ively re­viewed every ten years and, if ne­ces­sary, re­vised.

¹ The can­tons shall de­term­ine re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and pro­ced­ures.

² They shall reg­u­late the way in which com­munes, oth­er bod­ies re­spons­ible for activ­it­ies which have a spa­tial im­pact and or­gan­isa­tions for en­vir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion and for the pro­tec­tion of nature and cul­tur­al her­it­age that have a right to ap­peal in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 55 of the En­vir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Act of 7 Oc­to­ber 1983³¹ and with Art­icle 12 of the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966³² on the Pro­tec­tion of Nature and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age (NCHA) co­oper­ate in draw­ing up the struc­ture plans.³³

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ap­prove the struc­ture plans and their amend­ments if they con­form to this Act, and in par­tic­u­lar take prop­er ac­count of the activ­it­ies by the Con­fed­er­a­tion and by neigh­bour­ing can­tons that have a spa­tial im­pact.

² The struc­ture plans shall be­come leg­ally bind­ing on the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the neigh­bour­ing can­tons only when ap­proved by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

¹ If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil is un­able to ap­prove the struc­ture plans or parts there­of, it shall ar­range a con­cili­ation pro­ced­ure after hear­ing the views of the parties con­cerned.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall or­der that for the dur­a­tion of the con­cili­ation pro­ced­ure noth­ing may be done that might pre­ju­dice its res­ult.

³ If an agree­ment can­not be reached, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­cide the is­sue no later than three years after the be­gin­ning of the con­cili­ation pro­ced­ure.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall draw up the ba­sic prin­ciples ne­ces­sary to ful­fil its re­mit with re­gard to spa­tial is­sues. It shall draw up the re­quired policies and sec­tor­al plans and en­sure that they are com­pat­ible.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall work with the can­tons and in­form them in good time of its policies, sec­tor­al plans and build­ing pro­jects.

¹ Land use plans gov­ern the per­miss­ible use of land.

² They shall des­ig­nate in ad­vance build­ing zones, ag­ri­cul­tur­al zones and pro­tec­ted zones.

¹ Build­ing zones must be defined in such a man­ner that they meet the an­ti­cip­ated needs for the fol­low­ing 15 years.

² Ex­cess­ively large build­ing zones must be re­duced in size.

³ The loc­a­tion and size of the build­ing zones must be defined in a man­ner not re­stric­ted by com­mun­al bound­ar­ies, re­spect­ing the aims and prin­ciples of spa­tial plan­ning. In par­tic­u­lar, crop ro­ta­tion areas must be main­tained and nature and land­scape pre­served.

⁴ Land may be as­signed to a build­ing zone for the first time if:

a.

it is suit­able for de­vel­op­ment;

b.

it will prob­ably also be needed, made ready for de­vel­op­ment and de­veloped with­in the next 15 years even though in­tern­al use re­serves in ex­ist­ing build­ing areas have been ex­ploited to their full po­ten­tial;

c.

ar­able land is not frag­men­ted as a res­ult;

d.

its avail­ab­il­ity is guar­an­teed by law; and

e.

the re­quire­ments of the struc­ture plans are met thereby.

⁵ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons shall to­geth­er draw up tech­nic­al guidelines for as­sign­ing land to build­ing zones, and in par­tic­u­lar for cal­cu­lat­ing the area re­quired.

¹ The can­tons shall work with the com­munes to take the meas­ures that are re­quired in or­der that build­ing zones are used for their as­signed pur­pose, in par­tic­u­lar meas­ures re­quired un­der land law such as land re­or­gan­isa­tion pro­jects (Art. 20).

² Where it is in the pub­lic in­terest to do so, can­ton­al law shall provide that the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity set a dead­line for the de­vel­op­ment of a par­cel of land and can or­der spe­cif­ic meas­ures if the dead­line ex­pires without de­vel­op­ment tak­ing place.

¹ Ag­ri­cul­tur­al zones shall en­sure the long-term use of the land for food, the con­ser­va­tion of the coun­tryside, of re­cre­ation­al areas and of the eco­lo­gic­al bal­ance. They shall be kept largely un­developed, ac­cord­ing to their vari­ous func­tions. Ag­ri­cul­tur­al zones shall in­clude land which:

a.

is suit­able for ag­ri­cul­tur­al or hor­ti­cul­tur­al use and is re­quired to ful­fil the vari­ous ag­ri­cul­tur­al tasks; or

b.

should be used for ag­ri­cul­tur­al pur­poses in the gen­er­al in­terest.

² Wherever pos­sible, ag­ri­cul­tur­al zones shall be de­marc­ated as large and con­tinu­ous areas.

³ The can­tons shall take ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count of the vari­ous func­tions of the ag­ri­cul­tur­al zones in their plan­ning activ­it­ies.

¹ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions shall con­form to zone re­quire­ments if they are re­quired for ag­ri­cul­tur­al or hor­ti­cul­tur­al use. This is without pre­ju­dice to the nar­row­er defin­i­tion of zone con­form­ity in the con­text of Art­icle 16 para­graph 3.

^1bis A per­mit may be gran­ted for build­ings and in­stall­a­tions at an ag­ri­cul­tur­al con­cern that are re­quired for the pro­duc­tion of en­ergy from bio­mass or for con­nec­ted com­post­ing fa­cil­it­ies on the basis that they con­form to zone re­quire­ments if the pro­cessed bio­mass is closely linked to the ag­ri­cul­tur­al op­er­a­tions and to the op­er­a­tions at the loc­a­tion. Per­mits must be made con­di­tion­al on the build­ings or in­stall­a­tions be­ing used only for the per­mit­ted pur­pose. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.³⁸

² Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions that serve the in­tern­al ex­pan­sion of an ag­ri­cul­tur­al or hor­ti­cul­tur­al con­cern are in con­form­ity with zone re­quire­ments. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.³⁹

³ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions that serve a pur­pose bey­ond the in­tern­al ex­pan­sion of an ag­ri­cul­tur­al or hor­ti­cul­tur­al con­cern may be deemed to con­form to zone re­quire­ments if they are to be con­struc­ted in an ex­emp­ted area with­in the ag­ri­cul­tur­al zone, as de­term­ined by the can­ton in a plan­ning pro­ced­ure.

¹ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions that are re­quired for keep­ing horses shall be au­thor­ised as con­form­ing to zone re­quire­ments if they form part of an ex­ist­ing ag­ri­cul­tur­al busi­ness as defined in the Fed­er­al Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991⁴¹ on Rur­al Land Rights, provided the busi­ness pro­duces most of its own fod­der and has pas­tures for keep­ing horses.

² A per­mit may be gran­ted for areas with com­pacted ground where the horses kept by the busi­ness are used.

³ A per­mit shall be gran­ted for fa­cil­it­ies dir­ectly re­lated to us­ing horses such as tack rooms or chan­ging rooms.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails.

¹ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions that are no longer used for pur­poses con­form­ing to zone re­quire­ments and for which us­age in terms of Art­icles 24–24eis not per­mit­ted may no longer be used.⁴⁴ This pro­hib­i­tion shall cease to ap­ply as soon as they can again be used in con­form­ity with zone re­quire­ments.

² If au­thor­isa­tion is gran­ted for a lim­ited peri­od or sub­ject to a con­di­tion sub­sequent, the build­ings and in­stall­a­tions must be re­moved when au­thor­isa­tion ceases to ap­ply, and the loc­a­tion must be re­stored to its pre­vi­ous state.⁴⁵

¹ Pro­tec­tion zones shall in­clude:

a.

streams, rivers, lakes and their shores and banks;

b.

land­scapes of spe­cial beauty, and coun­tryside of nat­ur­al, cul­tur­al or his­tor­ic­al value;

c.

im­port­ant sites of loc­al char­ac­ter, his­tor­ic sites, as well as nat­ur­al or cul­tur­al monu­ments;

d.

hab­it­ats for pro­tec­ted an­im­als and plants.

² In­stead of de­fin­ing pro­tec­tion zones, can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion may provide for oth­er suit­able meas­ures.

¹ Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion may provide for oth­er land use zones.

² It may con­tain reg­u­la­tions con­cern­ing areas for which no use has yet been de­term­ined or for which a spe­cif­ic use will be per­mit­ted only at a later date.

³ For­es­ted areas shall be defined and pro­tec­ted by forestry le­gis­la­tion.

¹ In con­struc­tion and ag­ri­cul­tur­al zones, sol­ar pan­els on roofs which are suf­fi­ciently un­ob­trus­ive do not re­quire a build­ing per­mit in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 22 para­graph 1. The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies must merely be no­ti­fied of such in­stall­a­tions.

² Can­ton­al law may:

a.

de­term­ine spe­cif­ic, less aes­thet­ic­ally sens­it­ive types of build­ing zone in which oth­er sol­ar in­stall­a­tions may also be erec­ted without plan­ning per­mis­sion;

b.

re­quire a build­ing per­mit in clearly de­scribed types of pro­tec­tion zone.

³ Sol­ar in­stall­a­tions on cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al monu­ments of can­ton­al or na­tion­al im­port­ance al­ways re­quire a build­ing per­mit. They may not be det­ri­ment­al to the monu­ments to any sig­ni­fic­ant de­gree.

⁴ In all oth­er cases, in prin­ciple the in­terests of sol­ar en­ergy use on ex­ist­ing or new build­ings out­weigh aes­thet­ic con­sid­er­a­tions.

¹ A par­cel of land is re­garded as ready for de­vel­op­ment when it has ad­equate ac­cess for its des­ig­nated use and the ne­ces­sary wa­ter sup­ply, en­ergy and wastewa­ter fa­cil­it­ies can be con­nec­ted to nearby util­ity mains without con­sid­er­able dif­fi­culty or ex­pense.

² The loc­al au­thor­ity shall con­nect build­ing zones to in­fra­struc­ture with­in the peri­od of time set in the de­vel­op­ment pro­gramme; where ne­ces­sary, it may do so in stages. The con­tri­bu­tions to be made by landown­ers are be de­term­ined un­der can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion.⁴⁷

³ If the loc­al au­thor­ity does not con­nect build­ing zones with­in the time lim­it, landown­ers must be per­mit­ted to con­nect their land them­selves in ac­cord­ance with the plans ap­proved by the loc­al au­thor­ity or to ad­vance funds for in­fra­struc­ture con­nec­tion by the loc­al au­thor­ity, in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion.⁴⁸

Land re­or­gan­isa­tion may be of­fi­cially ordered and car­ried out if this is re­quired by the land use plans.

¹ Land use plans shall be uni­ver­sally bind­ing.

² Should cir­cum­stances change ap­pre­ciably, land use plans shall be re­viewed and, if ne­ces­sary, amended.

¹ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions may be erec­ted or mod­i­fied only with the per­mis­sion of the re­spons­ible au­thor­ity.

² The ba­sic re­quire­ment for a per­mit is:

a.

that the build­ings and in­stall­a­tions con­form to the pur­pose of the land use zone; and

b.

that the land is con­nec­ted to in­fra­struc­ture and util­it­ies.

³ The oth­er re­quire­ments con­tained in fed­er­al and can­ton­al law con­tin­ue to ap­ply.

Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion reg­u­lates ex­cep­tions with­in the build­ing zones.

Not­with­stand­ing Art­icle 22 para­graph 2a, per­mits to erect build­ings and in­stall­a­tions or to modi­fy their pur­pose may be gran­ted:

a.

if the pur­pose of the build­ings and in­stall­a­tions ne­ces­sit­ates their loc­a­tion out­side the build­ing zones; and

b.

if there are no over­rid­ing in­terests to the con­trary.

¹ If the change in pur­pose of a build­ing or in­stall­a­tion out­side the build­ing zone does not ne­ces­sit­ate any con­struc­tion work with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 22 para­graph 1, a per­mit shall be is­sued if:

a.

the change of pur­pose will not have any new im­pact on space, in­fra­struc­ture pro­vi­sion and the en­vir­on­ment; and

b.

it is not pro­hib­ited by any oth­er fed­er­al en­act­ment.

² The ex­cep­tion­al per­mit must be is­sued sub­ject to the con­di­tion that a new of­fi­cial rul­ing be made should cir­cum­stances change.

¹ Should an ag­ri­cul­tur­al busi­ness with­in the mean­ing of the Fed­er­al Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991⁵² on Rur­al Land Rights be un­able to sur­vive without an ad­di­tion­al source of in­come, a per­mit may be gran­ted for con­struc­tion work re­lated to a non-ag­ri­cul­tur­al sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tion which is closely re­lated to the primary con­cern and loc­ated in ex­ist­ing build­ings and in­stall­a­tions.⁵³ The re­quire­ment set out in Art­icle 24a need not be met.

^1bis Ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er an ad­di­tion­al source of in­come is re­quired, a per­mit may be gran­ted for sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tions with a close prac­tic­al con­nec­tion to an ag­ri­cul­tur­al busi­ness; for this pur­pose, a per­mit may be gran­ted for mod­est ex­pan­sions where no space or in­suf­fi­cient space is avail­able in the ex­ist­ing build­ings and in­stall­a­tions.⁵⁴

^1ter In the case of tem­por­ary op­er­at­ing centres, a per­mit may be gran­ted for con­struc­tion work only in the ex­ist­ing build­ings and in­stall­a­tions and only for sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tions of­fer­ing ac­com­mod­a­tion and res­taur­ant ser­vices.⁵⁵

^1quater In or­der to avoid dis­tor­tions of com­pet­i­tion, non-ag­ri­cul­tur­al sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tions must sat­is­fy the same stat­utory re­quire­ments and gen­er­al con­di­tions as com­mer­cial op­er­a­tions in sim­il­ar situ­ations in the build­ing zone.⁵⁶

² The sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tion may be run only by the man­ager of the ag­ri­cul­tur­al busi­ness or his or her spouse or co­hab­it­ee. Em­ploy­ees who work mainly or ex­clus­ively for the sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tion may only be em­ployed for sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1^bis. In every case, the work of this part of the busi­ness must be pre­dom­in­antly car­ried out by the man­aging fam­ily.⁵⁷

³ The ex­ist­ence of the sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tion must be re­cor­ded in the Land Re­gister.

⁴ Non-ag­ri­cul­tur­al sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tions con­sti­tute in­teg­ral parts of the ag­ri­cul­tur­al busi­ness and are sub­ject to the pro­hib­i­tion of di­vi­sion and frag­ment­a­tion of prop­erty pur­su­ant to Art­icles 58–60 of the Fed­er­al Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991 on Rur­al Land Rights.

⁵ The pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991 on Rur­al Land Rights with re­spect to non-ag­ri­cul­tur­al busi­nesses do not ap­ply to sub­si­di­ary op­er­a­tions.

¹ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions out­side build­ing zones that may be used in ac­cord­ance with the law but which no longer con­form to zone re­quire­ments are in prin­ciple pro­tec­ted in their cur­rent state.

² Such build­ings and in­stall­a­tions may, with the per­mis­sion of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity, be ren­ov­ated, par­tially mod­i­fied, mod­er­ately ex­pan­ded or re­con­struc­ted, provided they have been law­fully con­struc­ted or mod­i­fied.⁵⁹

³ The fore­go­ing also ap­plies to farm­houses and at­tached com­mer­cial build­ings that have been law­fully con­struc­ted or mod­i­fied be­fore the par­cel of land con­cerned be­come part of the area where build­ing is not per­mit­ted in ac­cord­ance with fed­er­al law. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions in or­der to pre­vent neg­at­ive con­sequences for ag­ri­cul­ture.⁶⁰

⁴ Changes to ex­tern­al ap­pear­ance must be ne­ces­sary to en­able mod­ern res­id­en­tial use or to up­grade en­ergy ef­fi­ciency or so as to blend more har­mo­ni­ously in­to the land­scape.⁶¹

⁵ Every case is sub­ject to com­pat­ib­il­ity with the pri­or­ity con­cerns of spa­tial plan­ning.⁶²

¹ Au­thor­isa­tion may be giv­en for ag­ri­cul­tur­al res­id­en­tial build­ings to be used for non-ag­ri­cul­tur­al res­id­en­tial pur­poses, provided the es­sen­tial char­ac­ter of the build­ings is pre­served.⁶⁵

^1bis …⁶⁶

² A com­plete change of pur­pose of build­ings and in­stall­a­tions that have been re­cog­nised as be­ing worthy of pre­ser­va­tion may be au­thor­ised if:⁶⁷

a.

these have been giv­en pro­tec­ted status by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity; and

b.

their con­tin­ued pre­ser­va­tion can­not oth­er­wise be guar­an­teed.

³ Per­mits un­der this Art­icle may be is­sued only if:⁶⁸

a.

the build­ing or in­stall­a­tion is no longer re­quired for its pre­vi­ous pur­pose, is suit­able for the in­ten­ded use, and no un­ne­ces­sary re­place­ment build­ings will res­ult;

b.

the ex­tern­al ap­pear­ance and the ba­sic struc­ture of the build­ing re­main es­sen­tially un­changed;

c.

no more than a minor ex­ten­sion of ex­ist­ing in­fra­struc­ture is ne­ces­sary and all in­fra­struc­ture costs in­curred as a res­ult of the com­plete change of pur­pose of the build­ings and in­stall­a­tions will be passed on to their own­ers;

d.

the ag­ri­cul­tur­al cul­tiv­a­tion of the sur­round­ing land is not en­dangered;

e.

there are no over­rid­ing in­terests to the con­trary.

¹ Provided the es­sen­tial char­ac­ter of the build­ings is pre­served, con­struc­tion work shall be per­mit­ted in un­in­hab­ited build­ings or parts of build­ings where they are used by res­id­ents of an ad­ja­cent res­id­en­tial build­ing for the pur­pose of keep­ing an­im­als as a hobby and an­im­al wel­fare stand­ards are re­spec­ted.

² New out­door in­stall­a­tions may be per­mit­ted in terms of para­graph 1 if they are ne­ces­sary for keep­ing an­im­als in ac­cord­ance with an­im­al wel­fare stand­ards. Such in­stall­a­tions may be lar­ger than the stat­utory min­im­um size provided this is com­pat­ible with the main as­pects of spa­tial plan­ning and the in­stall­a­tion is a re­vers­ible con­struc­tion.

³ The out­door in­stall­a­tions may be used for keep­ing an­im­als as a hobby provided no struc­tur­al al­ter­a­tions are re­quired and there is no new im­pact on the sur­round­ing area and the en­vir­on­ment.

⁴ If an­im­als are kept in a build­ing zone, per­mis­sion shall also be giv­en to fenced-in areas for graz­ing pur­poses provided there is no neg­at­ive im­pact on the land­scape.

⁵ Per­mits in ac­cord­ance with this Art­icle may only be giv­en if the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 24d para­graph 3 are met.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late the de­tails. In par­tic­u­lar it shall define the re­la­tion­ship between the modi­fic­a­tions pos­sible un­der this Art­icle and those un­der Art­icle 24c and Art­icle 24d para­graph 1.

¹ The can­tons shall de­term­ine re­spons­ib­il­it­ies and pro­ced­ures.

^1bis They shall de­term­ine the time lim­its and their con­sequences for all pro­ced­ures in­volved in the erec­tion or modi­fic­a­tion of build­ings or in­stall­a­tions, or changes to their pur­pose.⁷⁰

² In the case of any build­ing pro­jects out­side the build­ing zones the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall de­cide if they meet zone re­quire­ments or if an ex­cep­tion­al per­mit may be is­sued.⁷¹

¹ If the erec­tion or modi­fic­a­tion of a build­ing or in­stall­a­tion re­quires de­cisions from two or more au­thor­it­ies, one au­thor­ity shall be des­ig­nated re­spons­ible for en­sur­ing ad­equate co­ordin­a­tion.

² The au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for co­ordin­a­tion:

a.

may is­sue the ne­ces­sary pro­ced­ur­al or­ders;

b.

shall en­sure joint pub­lic­a­tion of all plan­ning ap­plic­a­tion doc­u­ments;

c.

shall ob­tain com­pre­hens­ive opin­ions on the pro­jects from all the can­ton­al and fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies in­volved;

d.

shall en­sure that con­tent of de­cisions is co­ordin­ated and, as far as pos­sible, ar­range for de­cisions to be pub­lished jointly or sim­ul­tan­eously.

³ The de­cisions must not con­tain any con­tra­dic­tions.

⁴ These prin­ciples ap­ply by ana­logy to the land use plan pro­ced­ure.

¹ A can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall ap­prove the land use plans and their amend­ments.

² It shall veri­fy that they con­form to the can­ton­al struc­ture plans ap­proved by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

³ Ap­prov­al by the can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall make the land use plans bind­ing.

¹ If a land use plan must be mod­i­fied or does not yet ex­ist, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may des­ig­nate pre­cisely defined areas as plan­ning zones. In­side these plan­ning zones noth­ing may be done to pre­ju­dice land use plan­ning.

² Plan­ning zones may be des­ig­nated as such for five years at the most. Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion may provide for this peri­od to be ex­ten­ded.

Re­strict­ive pro­vi­sions re­lat­ing to Art­icles 16a para­graph 2, 24b, 24c para­graph 2 and 24d may be is­sued un­der can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may sub­sid­ise com­pens­a­tion pay­ments made for par­tic­u­larly im­port­ant pro­tect­ive meas­ures in­tro­duced un­der Art­icle 17.

¹ In co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons, cit­ies and com­munes, the Con­fed­er­a­tion may sub­sid­ise pro­jects which pro­mote im­prove­ments to liv­ing qual­ity and so­cial co­he­sion in res­id­en­tial areas.

² The Fed­er­al Of­fice of Spa­tial Plan­ning co­ordin­ates these sub­sidies with the fed­er­al agen­cies con­cerned and sys­tem­at­ic­ally ana­lyses these activ­it­ies.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall make the pay­ment of sub­sidies un­der oth­er fed­er­al acts for meas­ures which have a spa­tial im­pact de­pend­ent on such meas­ures com­ply­ing with the ap­proved struc­ture plans.

The can­tons shall des­ig­nate an of­fice for spa­tial and re­gion­al plan­ning.

The fed­er­al of­fice re­spons­ible is the Fed­er­al Of­fice for Spa­tial De­vel­op­ment⁷⁶.

¹ Land use plans shall be made avail­able for pub­lic in­spec­tion.

² Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion shall provide for at least one means of leg­al re­dress against rul­ings and land use plans based on this Act and on its can­ton­al and fed­er­al im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

³ It shall guar­an­tee:

a.⁷⁷

at least the same rights of ap­peal as for an ap­peal un­der pub­lic law to the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court;

b.

full ex­am­in­a­tion by at least one ap­peal au­thor­ity.

⁴ Uni­form in­stances of ap­peal must be provided for ap­peals against de­cisions by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies to which Art­icle 25a para­graph 1 ap­plies.⁷⁸

¹ Ap­peals to fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies are gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice.

² Can­tons and com­munes are en­titled to ap­peal against de­cisions made by ul­ti­mate can­ton­al in­stances on:

a.

com­pens­a­tion res­ult­ing from re­stric­tions of title (Art. 5);

b.

the con­form­ity of build­ings and in­stall­a­tions to zone reg­u­la­tions;

c.

per­mits in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 24–24dand 37a.⁸⁰

³ The Fed­er­al Of­fice for Ag­ri­cul­ture has the right to ap­peal against de­cisions on pro­jects that af­fect crop ro­ta­tion areas.⁸¹

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that:

a.⁸³

…

b.

land use plans are drawn up in good time but no later than eight years after this Act has come in­to force.

² …⁸⁴

³ Land use plans val­id at the time this Act comes in­to force shall re­tain their valid­ity un­der can­ton­al law un­til they are ap­proved by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.⁸⁵

¹ The can­tons shall en­act the reg­u­la­tions ne­ces­sary for the ap­plic­a­tion of this Act.

² Un­less oth­er au­thor­it­ies are des­ig­nated un­der can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ments shall be au­thor­ised to take pro­vi­sion­al meas­ures and in par­tic­u­lar to de­term­ine plan­ning zones (Art. 27) and to is­sue re­strict­ive pro­vi­sions on build­ing out­side the build­ing zone (Art. 27a).⁸⁶

³ Provided no build­ing zones ex­ist, and can­ton­al law does not provide oth­er­wise, areas that are already largely built up shall be deemed to be pro­vi­sion­al build­ing zones.

¹ If areas par­tic­u­larly suit­able for ag­ri­cul­ture, or es­pe­cially im­port­ant land­scapes or sites are dir­ectly threatened and no pro­tect­ive meas­ures are taken in the peri­od set by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the lat­ter may define tem­por­ary land use zones. In­side these zones noth­ing may be done that could pre­ju­dice land use plan­ning.

² As soon as land use plans are drawn up, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall can­cel the tem­por­ary land use zones.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the con­di­tions un­der which a change of pur­pose may be per­mit­ted to com­mer­cial build­ings and in­stall­a­tions built be­fore 1 Janu­ary 1980 or which sub­sequently come to con­tra­vene zone re­quire­ments as a res­ult of changes in the land use plans.

¹ The can­tons con­cerned shall amend their struc­ture plans to the re­quire­ments with­in three years of this Amend­ment com­ing in­to force and en­sure that the com­munes con­cerned take suit­able meas­ures with­in the same peri­od, in par­tic­u­lar set­ting an­nu­al quotas, set­ting min­im­um lim­its for primary dwell­ings, de­lim­it­ing spe­cial land use zones or levy­ing in­cent­ive taxes.

² On ex­piry of this peri­od, no second homes may be au­thor­ised un­til the can­tons have made the re­quired ar­range­ments.

¹ The can­tons shall ad­apt their struc­ture plans to the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 8 and 8a para­graph 1 with­in five years of the com­mence­ment of the amend­ment of 15 June 2012.

² The total area of build­ing zone leg­ally cre­ated in the giv­en can­ton may not be in­creased un­til the amend­ments to the struc­ture plans have been ap­proved by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

³ On ex­piry of the dead­line set in para­graph 1, new build­ing zones may only be cre­ated if the amend­ment of the giv­en can­ton’s struc­ture plan has been ap­proved by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴ The can­tons shall ar­range ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion pro­ced­ures for con­sid­er­able ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages in ac­cord­ance with the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 5 with­in five years of the amend­ment of 15 June 2012 com­ing in­to force.

⁵ On ex­piry of the dead­line set in para­graph 4, new build­ing zones may not be cre­ated in can­tons un­less they have ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion pro­ced­ures in ac­cord­ance with the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 5. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines these can­tons fol­low­ing a hear­ing.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the date on which this Act comes in­to force.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 1980⁹⁰