Facts
On June 12, 1995, the municipal assembly of Ersigen decided to rezone an area of 5,468 m2 from the agricultural zone to the zone for sports and recreational facilities in order to enable the construction of a riding hall. The neighbor filed a complaint against this rezoning, as she was of the opinion that this circumvented Article 24 of the Spatial Planning Act (RPG). However, the Federal Supreme Court dismissed the complaint.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court clarified that an expansion of the building zone for a specific project is not to be considered as a circumvention of Article 24 RPG if the planning measure corresponds to the objectives and principles of land use planning. A circumvention of Article 24 RPG only exists if the planning measure creates an inadmissible small building zone or is based on an objectively unjustifiable weighing of interests.
In the present case, the Federal Supreme Court concluded that the expansion of the building zone for the construction of the riding hall neither creates an inadmissible small building zone nor is based on an objectively unjustifiable weighing of interests. Although the new zone appears as an island in the zoning plan, it is actually adjacent to already developed areas and merely expands them to a minor extent. Thus, the spatial planning goal of…