It was a highly anticipated vote, which placed the Pays d’Enhaut before an existential choice. The debates were intense in the village and the opponents still have the possibility of appealing against a decision by secret ballot taken with 29 votes for and 17 against.
What are we talking about?
A farm of the future that brings together energy production, hospitality, catering and sustainable agriculture under one roof, run by a farming couple whose wife, Esther Mottier, displays a strong character and undeniable charisma. She was an important character in Heidi.news’ Exploration of the cheesemaking genius of Etivaz, in the Pays d’Enhaut, as well as the central figure in my 2021 documentary, Esther’s Wager.
The Votre Cercle de Vie project is unique for Switzerland, on all levels: its appearance contrasts with traditional two-sided chalets, its dimensions, its diversity of activities under one roof, its ecological and social innovations, and its cost: 45 million francs. The project is supported by the municipality, local economic promotion, the Canton, the Gruyère Pays-d’Enhaut Nature Park, hundreds of private partners brought together over the years, and major companies such as Romande Energie and Grisoni. In the preparatory file, the only negative notice is an advisory opinion from the Federal Commission for the Protection of Nature and Landscape (CFNP). In 2022, it pointed out the significant damage to the landscape that the project represented… But it acknowledges in the same text that other “serious” damage had already occurred in the immediate vicinity.
Why is this debated?
“It’s a sensitive subject that divides the population,” acknowledged Maximilien Stauber, municipal rapporteur of the project. Taken into account in the notice of the municipal officials and in the report of the commission, both in favor of the project, the formal oppositions concern in particular the construction and its consequences. “The nuisances of the construction site in particular are obvious,” said Maximilien Stauber. On the other hand, once the building is functional, it will probably lead to an increase in road traffic, although it promotes soft mobility.
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What weighed in the balance for the municipal executive were the economic benefits, particularly jobs: “59 jobs is a lot for our region,” continues Maximilien Stauber. Regarding the uncertainty about economic viability, the elected officials do not consider themselves competent. “If the banks consider that it is not viable, they will not lend the funds, and the land will return to agricultural land.”
As for the location in the heart of the village and the volume, the municipal officials note that there is no other place to accommodate such a construction, and that the very nature of the project implies “a compact architectural system.”
“Too big”
More emotional reluctance was expressed after the vote, at the Caribou bar, where some well-known opponents who did not wish to give their names met. Listening to them, it was not so much the question of architecture that came up, “this big boat embedded in the land”, but the scale of the project. For a municipality spared from the galloping urbanization that is taking place elsewhere in the canton, it seemed “too big”.
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