Building in areas subject to noise pollution

Noise protection

Silence is a precious commodity. It is supposed to foster health and well-being of people and contribute to an appealing environment for working, living and leisure. In contrast, however, settlement development with dense building in Switzerland is more and more geared towards concentration, while at the same time population and traffic are increasing.

Therefore, conflicts of interest may arise between noise protection and the densification of settlements required by spatial planning.

In its function as owner of the infrastructure, the community is obliged to provide effective noise protection. The deadline for the rehabilitation of main as well as minor roads expired in March 2018. In many places, the cantons and municipalities are behind schedule with the remediation measures. Local residents are therefore still exposed to immissions that exceed the permissible limits under the Noise Protection Ordinance and will probably have to take legal action to enforce their noise protection claims.

At the same time, roads that are not noise-remediated can lead to de facto construction bans. Because, in noise-exposed areas, new buildings with noise-sensitive rooms may only be built if the building owner ensures that the immission limits are complied with. Those wishing to build have the choice of either financing appropriate noise protection measures themselves or waiting for the fixed installation to be refurbished. In individual cases an exemption permit can be granted. Before such an exemption is granted, however, it must be demonstrated that all the structural and design measures under consideration have been examined. In particular, noise barriers or 30 km/h speed limit zones come to mind. Only when it has been established that all proportionate measures have been exhausted an exemption permit can be granted “ultima ratio”.

In the 2024 autumn session, the Swiss parliament adopted new provisions on noise protection with the aim of making it easier to build in areas subject to noise pollution than is currently the case. Nevertheless, building owners, developers and investors still face demanding challenges, especially as the specifics of the planned relaxation of noise protection regulations are still pending and a new, established court practice must first be developed.