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It is a small but important intermediate victory for the opponents of the “La Colline” development: at the moment, the excavators cannot enter the building land of Arlesheim. The federal court ruled Wednesday that construction of the planned development should not begin there. For the Lausanne judges, priority is given to the processing of the complaint filed by the Helvetia Nostra Foundation. The owner of the building, Steiner AG, already has a legally valid building permit. But you have to wait with the new order.
The provision was initially ignored
The foundation and the “Initiative Natur- und Kulturraum Dornach-Arlesheim” (IDA) have thus achieved an initial objective: to prevent Steiner from creating irreversible facts on the site. Now they await the complaint from Helvetia Nostra, which demands that environmental concerns be examined more closely and that the nature reserve below the area be protected. However, according to IDA spokeswoman Jennifer Mc Gowan, a bulldozer struck the meadow the afternoon before yesterday.
“At this point, all parties were already in possession of the provision,” he says. Construction workers continued to remove the earth, from all places, in the lower zone, that is, where the nature reserve is most at risk. Helvetia Nostra also announced yesterday: “It was incomprehensible that this federal court order was initially ignored.”
The federal court holds the canton responsible
Steiner says the order was not yet known on Thursday. The company spokesperson also justified the work at the site by stating that the Federal Supreme Court had only stated that the “enforcement measures” should be “abstained” until the decision on Helvetia Nostra’s request for a precautionary ban is issued. “This request does not refer to the construction site itself, but to the removal of land and vegetation.” Mc Gowan, on the other hand, is “affected” because the dredging continued despite the federal court order.
Helvetia Nostra and the Franz Weber Foundation now want to clarify whether the authorities and the builder will adhere to this interim order. However, it is not clear who would have to intervene in the event of non-compliance with the federal court’s decision.
In response to a request from this newspaper, the court itself writes: “The responsible construction authority in the canton is responsible for supervising the construction activity in the canton,” the construction and environmental protection department (BUD) based in Basel His media spokesman Nico Buschauer writes: “The federal court order does not contain any formal instructions transferring responsibility and control for proper implementation to the BUD.” If the stay order is violated, action must be taken against the federal court.
“There are no more jobs planned on the site”
Which makes the situation even more confusing: Basel’s security department says the BUD can, if necessary, instruct the cantonal prison administration to enforce the order.
It is not yet clear whether the project’s opponents should insist on compliance with the order. There was no construction work yesterday Friday, says Mc Gowan.
That is why IDA does not plan to mobilize environmentalists as it did in mid-September. At Steiner AG it is said that “no further field work is planned for the next few days”. And it is open to a round table convened by the canton, like Helvetia Nostra. Mc Gowan also says: “We are urgently looking for a conversation.”
However, Steiner appears to be preparing for a possible escalation. The area was fenced off and he was warned that entry was not allowed.
