Flowers instead of cars

The municipality of Ebikon has approved the objection of the VCS Lucerne, and has ordered the conversion of the gravel area in question into an area with flowers. The managers of the Mall managers are remaining silent about this decision.

On peak days such as Black Friday or Christmas, the car park of the Mall of Switzerland shopping centre in Ebikon becomes over-full. That's why the shopping centre wanted to create more than 80 additional alternative parking spaces. In addition, the Mall could also have used the area as a temporary sales area. The municipality of Ebikon has now rejected these plans, as the Lucerne section of the Transport Club of Switzerland (VCS: Verkehrs-Club der Schweiz), which is well known for its opposition to individual motorised transport, writes in a statement. The objection of the VCS Luzern has been endorsed, and the building application for parking spaces and a sales area has been rejected.

"The use of the Site 5 as an alternative parking lot is contrary to both the planning regulations and the officially-binding Overall Transport Concept for Lucerne East (Gesamtverkehrskonzept Luzern Ost)," states the municipality, explaining its decision. Although it would have been possible to grant exceptions in the presence of "extraordinary circumstances", the municipality did not wish to consider this further, following a comprehensive balance of interests: "The creation of temporary alternative parking spaces on Site 5 is not regarded as being necessary."

This is how the Mall of Switzerland shopping centre presented itself in summer 2018. The Ebikon municipality has now decided that, in the future, the area around the shopping centre will be greener.

In the decision, Ebikon followed, among other things, the argumentation of the VCS that more parking spaces cause more traffic. During the considerations, however, the Mall had claimed that the additional parking spaces would rather lead to "a reduction in traffic." Ebikon did not believe this, however. The creation of new parking spaces meant "additional opportunities for motorised private transport (MIV)," the decision states.

Mall must remove the gravel area
"In order to exploit the potential for shifting to ‘slow traffic’ and public transport, restrictive measures are necessary with regard to MIV, such as parking regulations, with supporting measures for public transport and slow transport," writes the municipality of Ebikon. And this should apply everywhere, in both public and private spaces, points out the VCS Luzern. The regulations should form the legal basis for "restrictive parking permits" "with the aim of reducing the mandatory numbers of parking spaces." As these regulations do not yet exist, the number of parking spaces should therefore be "reduced to the lowest possible practical number" in development and design plans. The creation of additional alternative parking spaces in the Mall of Switzerland would run counter to these objectives, the statement continued.

The decision has now also clarified how many parking spaces have actually been granted to the Mall of Switzerland in the first place, the VCS Luzern continues. "And the number is less than the shopping centre anticipated." The Mall has always maintained that it is entitled to 1,828 parking spaces. This is incorrect, however: only 1,760 parking spaces have been approved, according to the municipality of Ebikon. And so many were also created.

The Mall of Switzerland now has to remove the existing gravel site, in accordance with the legally binding building permit.

The decision of the municipality of Ebikon states literally: "The existing gravel are must be transformed into an area with flowers no later than 4 months after the present decision achieves legal force".

The Mall of Switzerland has the possibility of challenging the decision in the Cantonal Court within 20 days. Whether it will do so remains to be seen. At the moment, the Mall's managers are not providing any information at all– regardless of the topic: whether regarding this building application at the moment,  or the new store opening hours in the canton of Lucerne last week, which have been in force since 1 May. Information will be provided via communications when these are necessary from their point of view, says the media office.