City Council buys plot of land on the Landis & Gyr site

It's a done deal: at its first meeting of the year on Tuesday evening, 21st January, the Zug City Council (GGR) voted by a large majority in favour of purchasing the 7,240 square metre site on the Theilerplatz in Zug.

This area also includes the historic Landis & Gyr railway station building, and is ideally located in the centre of Zug. The plan is for a 60-metre high tower block with 19 floors. A minimum proportion of 25% is to be reserved for commercial use, which corresponds to four floors. The remaining 15 floors are to be used for residential purposes, with at least three for affordable housing.

The electorate will not have a say in the purchase, and a public vote is only planned in around two to three years' time, once a concrete development plan has been finalised. After the official purchase, a feasibility study and an architectural competition will be organised.

Chief Financial Officer Urs Raschle at the presentation of the purchase of the land on the Landis & Gyr site       
Photo: Matthias Jurt

Supplementary credits totalling around CHF 1.3 million have been approved by the GGR for this. ‘We can then say exactly what will happen on the piece of land, which project is to be realised there, and the total amount intended for the project,’ says Philip C. Brunner (SVP, Swiss People’s party), who is the President (Chairman) of the Audit Committee (Geschäftsprüfungskommission).

The idea behind this two-stage process: if the electorate reject the project in a later referendum, the city could draw up a new project with a different distribution of use and then submit this to the people. If the construction project is rejected, however, the land would still be owned by the City of Zug. A referendum would also be possible. A referendum by the GLP parliamentary group was narrowly rejected by the GGR.