Facts
The appellant, the owner of the neighboring plot, filed a complaint against the granting of the building permit for the installation of an air/water heat pump on the northeast side of the respondent's residential building. The Lucerne Cantonal Court had dismissed the complaint, as the planning values for noise emissions were being observed.
The Federal Court upheld the complaint and remanded the case to the municipality of Vitznau for re-assessment. It concluded that the Cantonal Court had violated the environmental law precautionary principle by not examining additional noise protection measures, even though these could be implemented at relatively low cost and could result in a significant reduction in emissions.
Considerations
The Federal Court stated that for installations that comply with the planning values, additional noise protection measures in the sense of precaution only come into consideration if they can be implemented at relatively low cost and result in a significant reduction in emissions. The lower court had limited itself to stating that the planned heat pump was a model of the latest generation with lower to medium sound power, without examining further measures.
The Federal Court considers it…