Next Round in Debate on Vienna Heumarkt Project

While the project placed Vienna's historic center on the "Red List" of endangered World Heritage sites and UNESCO demands a downsizing, a recently submitted report by urban planner Christa Reicher (professor at the University of Aachen) commissioned by the city sees no necessity for this. Specifically, it concerns the "Heumarkt neu 2021" project with a 56.5-meter high "residential slab" and a 47.85-meter high hotel. The city of Vienna had already approved the project and saw no EIA requirement. Residents and environmental organizations mobilized against it and recently appealed to the BVwG as an appellate body.

Decision by BVwG

The BVwG now in the decision: "If the project in question is realized, - especially due to visual impacts on the urban spaces of Belvedere Garden and City Park - significant negative impacts on the outstanding universal value of the UNESCO World Heritage site 'Historic Center of Vienna' or essential attributes that convey the outstanding universal value are to be expected".

Therefore, an EIA requirement in the simplified procedure according to the EIA Act 2000 is mandatory. In the environmental assessment, the impacts on the cityscape must be examined in detail. A positive result is required for the building permit. Wertinvest can appeal the decision to the Constitutional Court (VfGH) or extraordinarily to the Administrative Court.

Lawyer Sees "Deficiencies"

For Vienna's ÖVP state party chairman Markus Figl, "it is now finally clear: This project is not suitable for world heritage," he emphasized in a statement. "If an EIA procedure is now initiated, the Viennese population can participate in this process by forming citizens' initiatives," said Christian Schuhböck, Secretary General of "Alliance For Nature". Lawyer Piotr Pyka, who represents the environmental organization in the proceedings, also identifies "deficiencies" in the decision: Why the EIA should be conducted in a simplified rather than an ordinary procedure is "incomprehensible." The simplified procedure allows for a more flexible design of the process. However, the same ecological standards apply.

"The end of this gigantic project must now officially come," demanded Vienna's FPÖ state party chairman City Councilor Dominik Nepp. "That an EIA is needed should have been clear long ago," said a statement from the environmental organization Virus. A decision on an appeal has not yet been made, according to "Kurier" Tojner's lawyer Karl Liebenwein. He was "surprised" as the BVwG decision contradicts the Reicher report.

More on Vienna's urban development

(APA/Red)

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