Facts
On November 28, 1999, the citizens of the municipality of Bern voted to establish a leisure and shopping center in Brünnen. The planning was approved by the Canton of Bern on July 5, 2000. The "WESTside Brünnen" project includes a leisure and shopping center with various uses such as catering establishments, a leisure pool, a Media Convention Center, a gas station, a specialized store, a garden center, a hotel, and a retirement home.
Neue Brünnen AG submitted a building permit application on February 28, 2002. After an environmental impact assessment, the District Governor of Bern granted the building permit on August 12, 2003, subject to numerous requirements and conditions. The appellants filed an appeal against this decision with the Administrative Court of the Canton of Bern, which partially upheld the appeal and modified some ancillary provisions.
The appellants have filed an administrative court appeal against the judgment of the Administrative Court with the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismisses the appeal, insofar as it is admissible.
The Federal Supreme Court holds that the trip restrictions ordered within the framework of the Bern traffic performance model are considered permissible emission limits within the meaning of Art. 11 para. 3 and Art. 12 para. 1 let. c EPA. The traffic performance model serves to achieve the air quality objectives of the Air Pollution Control Ordinance by 2015, by distributing the overall remediation performance equally among the individual locations of traffic-intensive projects based on spatial planning criteria.
The calculations…