Admissibility of an Expansion of Pig Farming in the Agricultural Zone

Facts

Farmer X. operates an agricultural business with dairy cattle, breeding pigs, and arable farming. He applied for a permit to renovate and expand the existing pig barn in order to increase pig farming from 24 to 70 sows. The municipality of Böttstein rejected the building permit application, whereupon X. filed a complaint. The Government Council of the Canton of Aargau overturned the municipal decision and referred the matter back to the Böttstein Municipal Council for the issuance of the building permit. Against this decision, the municipality of Böttstein appealed to the Administrative Court, which dismissed the appeal. Thereupon, the municipality of Böttstein filed an administrative court appeal with the Federal Supreme Court.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court upholds the administrative court appeal. It finds that the Administrative Court has violated the federal legal provisions on zone-compliant buildings and facilities in the agricultural zone (Art. 16a ForA in conjunction with Art. 36 SPA) by using the dry matter criterion instead of a concrete operational concept to assess the soil dependence of the planned pig farming. To assess whether the disputed buildings and facilities serve soil-dependent livestock farming, it is necessary to examine whether the appellant's farm has sufficient land as a feed base for the nutrition of the livestock. For this purpose, it appears necessary to determine, based on the specific conditions prevailing on the farm, what proportion of the land serves as a feed base for the livestock and how many animals can be fed with it. Furthermore, the Federal Supreme Court states that according to Art. 34 para. 4 lit. c SPA, a building permit may only be granted if the…