Zurich/Dübendorf ZH - Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court has certified that the canton of Zurich’s design plan for Innovation Park Zurich is legally valid. In repealing a different judgement made by the administrative court, the decision paves the way to establish the research site.

In summer last year, the Zurich Administrative Court withdrew the legal basis from the cantonal design plan for the Innovation Park Zurich. According to the court, the canton was not authorized to draw up a plan for an area of ​​this size. The canton of Zurich, the Stiftung Innovationspark Zurich and the site development company then took the decision to the Federal Supreme Court.

Now, the Federal Supreme Court has announced that it approves the complaint, writes the building department of the canton of Zurich in a statement. This creates a "binding planning law" for the establishment of a research site at Dübendorf military airfield, it explains. The design plan will be implemented in the same way as the synthesis report for the airfield.

“This judgement gives the innovation park momentum and confirms that it is a project of national interest,” said head of the Department for Economic Affairs, Carmen Walker Späh, as quoted in the statement. The local community also commented positively on the Federal Supreme Court’s decision. For Marlis Dürst, mayor of Wangen-Brüttisellen, the judgement forms the basis on which to continue “the cooperative collaboration between the federal government, canton and municipalities that has been cultivated over the past few months”.