Despite or because of land use and design control: Has urban growth in Greater Zurich gotten out of hand?

Abstract

The urban sprawl in the suburbs is a phenomenon that has been criticised worldwide, both in terms of low development and human density and in terms of monofunctional land use, which has led to enormous horizontal growth and congestion. With the introduction of the Spatial Planning Act (SPA) in 1980, Swiss municipalities were obliged to control urban growth by reducing urban land consumption and using urban land parsimoniously, i.e. using urban land within walking distance to good or very good public transport service intensively, locally balanced and with a human centered built environment and public realm. This paper empirically analysis with a universally applicable method of spatial analysis whether urban land in Greater Zurich is used parsimoniously and whether land use and design control have contributed to this goal. This is achieved by measuring the intensity, balance in terms of job-resident and retail job-resident relationships in 2014, the change of land use of 2014 compared to land use of 1990 for residents and of 1995/96 for workers as well as the relationship of public transport accessibility and land use control from 2014. These paper reports that the four essential spatial elements mentioned above are not sufficiently fulfilled. Therefore, land use and design control have failed to guide for parsimonious urban land use.