Inexpensive rents, lots of green and open space, space for businesses and school children: This is what the master plan for the SBB Neugasse area stipulates. The city council has approved the forward-looking plan. The municipal council decides whether it can be pursued further.

With the master plan approved by the city council, principles for the urban development are laid down, which are trend-setting for the quarter and the city exemplary.

In the immediate vicinity of the Josefwiese, a colorful, mixed, lively part of the city will be created on around 30,000 square meters.

Around 900 people will one day find their home on the SBB Neugasse site. A third of the approximately 375 new apartments will be built by housing cooperatives in accordance with the specifications of cantonal housing subsidies in building law and will be rented out at cost, for example: A three-room apartment with 75 m² costs around 1400 francs per month.

Another third is rented in the low-price segment, around 1850 francs, the last third in the middle market segment, 2450 francs.

Where today you encounter a closed area that is inaccessible to the population, the new open spaces will be accessible to the entire city population. The abundant greenery will also contribute to heat mitigation and biodiversity.

So that the many trees have enough water, substructures are only allowed where there are buildings. The Neugasse SBB site will also be a place of work and education: Are commercial and community uses, around 250 jobs, as well as a municipal school and a kindergarten recorded in the master plan.

Around 200 schoolchildren, big and small, will make the area even more lively.

On the site is the important ensemble of the “locomotive depot G”, which is listed in the inventory of monuments of supra-municipal importance. The urban development concept of the master plan builds on these valuable historical structures.

The locomotive depot will be partially preserved, transformed and repurposed, thus always telling visitors a piece of the history of the area.

The attractive viaduct arches with a wide range of leisure and restaurant options are in the immediate vicinity and the connection to Hardbrücke train station is being improved. In addition, as an automatic extension of the quarter, the area will be largely freed from through traffic.

The interested public was significantly involved in the intensive planning process in 2017 and 2018 – up to 200 people took part in the large group workshops.

In what is probably the largest participatory process in the history of the city, the framework conditions now integrated in the master plan were adopted from the participatory process.

It is also the declared goal to incorporate valuable ideas and requirements from the district and future users into the development.

The master plan is the binding basis for implementation as part of usage and special use planning. However, the municipal council will decide whether it can be implemented at all.

The corresponding special commission is currently discussing two directives from the city council, which should clear the way for the further planning that is now available.

On the one hand, there is a popular initiative that demands that the city buy the SBB site in Neugasse or take over the building rights; also the acknowledgment of a contract between the city council and the SBB, which underpins the thrust of the master plan and, above all, guarantees the long-term security of low rents.

The SBB have made it clear to the city council and local council that they would be happy to be able to break new ground with the Neugasse and to be role models for further planning.

However, the SBB have also made it clear that they are not prepared to cede the area as required by the initiative. If the municipal council insists on further demands that go beyond the master plan and the present contract with the city, the SBB will stop the project.