Facts
A.X. is the owner of properties No. 621 and 1708 as well as a co-owner of Parcel No. 1709 in the city of Sursee. These properties are bordered by densely overgrown rows of trees and bushes. The Sursee City Council included these border plantings in an inventory of nature and landscape protection objects of local importance. The X. families then demanded a contestable decision as to whether these plantings constitute protected hedges within the meaning of the cantonal nature and landscape protection law. The City Council determined that these are protected hedges and indicated that an exemption permit for their removal would be issued. The property owners filed a complaint against this decision.Considerations
The Federal Court upholds the complaint. It finds that the contested decision was wrongly based on the less far-reaching federal law instead of the relevant cantonal and municipal law. The cantonal law provides for a general hedge protection in § 3 of the Hedge Protection Ordinance, which goes beyond the federal legal protection. In addition, Art. 6 para. 1 of the municipal Building and Zoning Ordinance provides a formal legal basis for hedge protection. Therefore, there is a sufficient legal basis for the protection of the hedges in question in the interplay of cantonal and municipal law.However, the Federal Court points out that in determining the hedge…