Facts
Mövenpick Dienstleistungs AG submitted a building application for the demolition of an existing building and the construction of a cinema and shopping center in Adliswil. The project included 10 cinema halls, restaurants, a dance hall, and 1229 parking spaces. The Adliswil city council granted the building permit subject to certain conditions, such as reducing the number of parking spaces to 800 and obliging the applicant to manage the parking spaces for a fee. The Verkehrs-Club der Schweiz (VCS) appealed, and the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich revoked the building permit because the facility was not sufficiently accessible by public transport.
Mövenpick Dienstleistungs AG appealed to the Federal Court and requested that the decision of the Administrative Court be revoked and the building permit be granted. The Federal Court accepted the appeal and examined whether the refusal of the building permit by the Administrative Court was justified.
Considerations
The Federal Court first examined whether the administrative appeal was admissible. It concluded that the appeal could be accepted as an administrative appeal, since the question of accessibility by public transport was closely related to the federal environmental law issue of whether the facility was permissible in light of air pollution control law.
Then, the Federal Court examined whether the refusal of the building permit by the Administrative Court was justified. It concluded that the facility was not sufficiently accessible by public transport, as the existing bus line was insufficiently efficient and the facility was not attractively accessible by public transport.
The Federal Court also examined whether the refusal of the building…