Has Baar looked the other way for more than 20 years?

50 parking spaces should be open to the public in the underground car park under the Bahnhofplatz in Baar - this at least the view of the Station Development plan of 1998. Only nine of them are, however. The public parking spaces, marked in white and with a large sign, are located at the very back of the garage, in the passage leading to the station underpass. All the other parking spaces are mainly rented to companies, and occasionally to private individuals.

An inspection of the submission for the underground car park to the local council in 1997 brings clarity. It’s actually difficult to overlook the fact that the parking spaces in this underground car park should be public. The item on the agenda is headed: "Granting of a building permit for a public underground car park under the Bahnhofstrasse near the Baar railway station". In it, the local council considered it to be correct that, due to the "previous and planned considerable construction activity in the station area ... additional public parking spaces should be created." And the conclusion reads: "The local council is of the opinion that the granting of a building right for a public underground car park under the Bahnhofstrasse is generally advantageous.” The submission also states that the underground car park must be managed in accordance with the guidelines of the municipal car park management concept.

The building lease for the underground car park was concluded with the Zobel family, and is still held by the Zobel administration. The family is not unknown in Baar. Father Günter and son Dieter Zobel are, among others, owners of the Gotthard-Center, the Migros building and the skyscraper with the Baarcity restaurant, which has been closed for almost two years. The underground garages of these buildings are connected to the underground car park under the Bahnhofplatz.

The actual "public" underground car park thereby only corresponds to a small part of the original intention. And this has also only been so since 2014, when the municipality asked Günter Zobel to release ten places, as stated by the Baar municipal president Walter Lipp on request. One of these ten places has since been completely removed due to changes in the regulations, however - so only nine are currently public. The municipality receives building lease interest for the car park each year, which was set at around CHF 4,000 a year in 1997. The revenue generated by the underground car park since its creation in 1998 goes to the Zobel administration.

The entrance to the public underground car park under the Bahnhofplatz in Baar.

The underground car park under the Bahnhofplatz, with only nine public parking spaces so far.

According to the former manager of the Baar construction department, Urs Spillmann, the places were let privately from the very beginning. Research has shown that a permanently-rented parking space currently costs between CHF 150 and CHF 170 a month. Depending on how many years ago the tenancy was agreed, the average cost is CHF 160, amounting to around CHF 1.7 million if extrapolated over the 18 years in which all 50 places were privately let. If the 50 public parking spaces had been fully occupied for eight hours during the store opening hours, they would have earned around CHF 2.8 million. A scenario that is unlikely, not only because full occupancy would thereby have to occur during the holiday season. Parking for eight hours is currently charged at CHF 12.50. In the case of shorter-term parking, the revenue per hour is one-third lower.

How the public parking spaces were rented privately up to today is not documented, according to Walter Lipp - who was municipal secretary from 2002 to 2018. There is no record of this agreement.

But it had never been stated that this was a definitive solution. As he had also exercised a legal mandate for Günter Zobel during his time in the local council, he was not involved in the drafting of the interim solution, nor in any discussions in the local council. The negotiations were conducted by the construction department, and he had always recused himself whenever the town council discussed business involving the Zobel family. "I represented Günter Zobel above all with regard to private persons, less to the municipality."

Günter Zobel, who is now more than 90 years-old, has handed over the management of the business to his son, Dieter Zobel. Despite several phone calls, and a request for callback left with an employee, as well as a written request, he could not be reached within the week. It was therefore not possible to find out whether the Zobel family has a document permitting them to carry out private letting.

It is known, however, that, in addition to the release of the ten parking places, an additional agreement was made in 2014. Mayor Lipp explains: "It was agreed that an additional 33 parking spaces would be made public with the planned completion of the new Bahnmatt retirement centre in 2019." 85 parking spaces northwest of the tracks would have been lost through the construction of the new building. The planning of the Bahnmatt was suspended last year, however. "The question now arises as to whether the deadline for the release of the 33 parking spaces will apply from the completion of the Bahnmatt retirement centre or from the year 2019," notes Lipp. This still had to be negotiated.

He is of the opinion, however that there are currently enough public parking spaces in Baar. "If there were not enough, there would have been complaints from the population long ago."  But even if the 33 additional places become public, the provisions of the 1998 development plan will not have been fulfilled. Because the last seven parking spaces - of the 50 that should actually be public – will remain private, according to Lipp.