Competing for Taxpayers
with the canton of Zurich. Zurich is the Swiss canton with the highest number of inhabitants – 1.247 million people spread over 12 districts that again comprise of 172 municipalities. It is perhaps confusing that the agglomeration of Zurich does not stop at the borders of the canton of Zurich. In fact, the agglomeration reaches into the neighbouring cantons of Aargau and Schwyz. Above even this level there is what might be described as the Greater Zurich area. The total population of this metropolitan area is 1.65 million people. More importantly, and less technically, it is the dominant economic centre of Switzerland.
City of Zurich: “The dominant economic centre of Switzerland”
We wanted to find out how housing is provided in the Greater Zurich area, with a special focus on the city of Zurich’s neighbouring cantons. Two things were of special interest to us. First, how is the relationship between the cantons? Do they compete for inhabitants? Do they cooperate when it comes to the provision of infrastructure? Second, how does planning work within the cantons? On what basis do they release land for development? What is the position of local communities within the cantons when it comes to planning? To understand more about these issues we met with the heads of the cantonal planning departments in the cantons of Schwyz and Zug. To find out more about the city of Zurich’s changing face, we got information from the city
of Zurich’s planning department and talked to representatives of the local Chamber of Commerce.
The city of Zurich – fewer people, more space needed As we said earlier, the city of Zurich has experienced a loss of about 100,000 inhabitants since the early 1960s. The city currently has a population of 366,000. This means that it lost roughly a quarter of its population. However, does this mean that it is easy to find flats, houses and space for inner-city development projects? After all, if so many people have turned their backs on Zurich, one could assume that whenever an inhabitant leaves, there will be a chance to use the space that he previously occupied. Unfortunately, though, this is not true. On the contrary, there is a lack of space in the city of Zurich and this is due to the fact that since the 1960s household formation patterns as well the demand for floor space have changed. Dr Beat Zimmermann, Senior Vice President of Zurich’s Chamber of Commerce, explains that over time people have demanded ever bigger flats and houses even though household sizes have declined.54 “This means that the same space is needed today for fewer inhabitants and this, of course, does not make planning easier.” His observations are confirmed by Alex Martinovits of Zurich’s local planning department:55 “In the core urban area of the city of Zurich there are hardly any land reserves left and the option to use brownfields for new dwellings will only be viable for another few years.” The city’s strategy to tackle this problem is to make more people live on the same space: “The authorities of the city of Zurich are trying systematically to find out where densification is possible,” Mr Martinovits states. “We are cooperating with developers, homeowners and the council’s land bank to identify areas in which densification policies are possible and reasonable. In some areas, we are explicitly supporting the replacement of existing buildings which can provide twice or three times the original floor space.” www.policyexchange.org.uk
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