National Council debates noise protection in residential construction
Published: Monday, Mar 4th 2024, 20:10
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The National Council has accepted a proposal from the Federal Council to better coordinate noise protection and settlement development. It concerns a revision of the Environmental Protection Act, with which the national government also wants to speed up the remediation of contaminated sites.
After the bill's approval remained undisputed, the National Council began its detailed deliberations on Monday evening. It immediately addressed one of the key points of the bill: the circumstances under which it should be permitted to build new apartments in areas where noise emission limits have been exceeded.
Several speakers pointed out that this issue was very important in view of increasing immigration and the growing shortage of space for housing construction.
Re-introduce "ventilation window practice"
When discussing the bill in December, the Council of States spoke out in favor of some simplifications in noise protection. For example, residential construction should also be possible if the noise-sensitive rooms in a home are simply equipped with controlled ventilation.
This was criticized in the National Council by Gabriela Suter (SP/AG) and Beat Flach (GLP/AG) on behalf of their parliamentary groups: Controlled ventilation should not be equated with air conditioning. It must also be possible to ventilate such apartments, especially in summer.
Flach is therefore requesting, among other things, that the so-called "ventilation window practice", which has long been practiced in a number of cantons in Switzerland, be written into the amended Environmental Protection Act. The Federal Supreme Court put an end to this practice in 2015 with a ruling on a case in the canton of Aargau. Since then, according to Flach, who works for the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects, there has been legal uncertainty.
The practice states that residential construction in areas with excessive noise should be possible if each residential unit has a window in every noise-sensitive room that complies with the immission limits. Flach intends to soften this rule somewhat under certain conditions.
Commission majority wants "middle way"
A majority of the National Council's preliminary consultation committee, on the other hand, is proposing a solution that it describes as a middle way between Flach's proposal and that of the Council of States.
In future, they will be allowed to live in Switzerland in areas with excessive noise levels under the following conditions: At least one noise-sensitive room in each residential unit has a window that complies with the limit values.
In addition, controlled ventilation must be installed in the other rooms or a private outdoor space must be available that complies with the noise limits.
Alternatively, building permits are possible if at least half of the noise-sensitive rooms in each residential unit have a window that complies with the immission limit values, and the minimum structural protection in accordance with Article 21 of the Environmental Protection Act is tightened in an appropriate and economically proportionate manner.
The FDP parliamentary group had already spoken out in favor of this proposal in principle before the session was interrupted on Monday evening. The National Council will continue with it on March 11. The SP parliamentary group spoke out in favor of the Flach proposal.
Against 30 km/h as a noise protection measure?
An individual motion by Thomas Hurter (SVP/SH) is also likely to cause a stir from March 11. He is calling for it to be prohibited in future to reduce the maximum permitted speed on traffic-oriented roads with the aim of reducing noise, for example by imposing a 30 km/h speed limit.
A minority of the pre-advisory committee, which had submitted a similar motion, withdrew it in favor of Hurter.
From March 11, a possible softening of the noise emission limits for residential areas around airports will also be discussed. Gabriela Suter has already threatened a referendum if the National Council goes too far on noise issues.
Children's playgrounds: Private individuals to be helped
Another of the Federal Council's main objectives in revising the law is to speed up the remediation of contaminated sites. In this regard, the preliminary consultation committee proposed to the National Council that the cantons should be able to provide financial support to the owners of these sites under certain conditions. The Council of States did not want this.
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