Winterthur must review permits issued for 5G antennas
Published: Monday, Oct 28th 2024, 13:30
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Following a ruling by the Federal Supreme Court, the Winterthur building committee has to deal with the conversion of various antennas to 5G technology. If adaptive antennas have been installed, subsequent building permit procedures must be carried out.
The Federal Supreme Court has upheld an appeal by Dominik Krämer, President of the "Smarte Funk und Glasfaser" association. Among other things, he complained that the switch to 5G technology with the installation of adaptive antennas at certain locations had been inadmissibly approved in the so-called minor amendment procedure.
The highest Swiss court has already ruled in an earlier judgment that this procedure is not permissible. The adaptive antennas would automatically change their transmission direction and antenna pattern at short intervals using algorithms without changing the mounting device. This means that the signal is transmitted in the direction in which it is requested by the end devices.
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This could lead to a different spatial distribution of the radiation. Under certain circumstances, there may be an increase in field strength at locations other than the previous ones. In the event of such a change, there is a public interest in being able to check this before the change is approved, which is why a normal approval procedure must be carried out.
The matter now goes back to the Winterthur building committee. The committee must examine where the minor amendment procedure was wrongly applied and, in these cases, grant the operators the right to be heard if a subsequent building permit procedure is required. In addition, the committee must decide on the complainant's applications to switch off or dismantle certain antennas. (Judgment 1C_332/2023 of 11.10.2024)
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