UBS high-rise, gender star, apartments: the city of Zurich votes

• On November 24th, the people of Zurich will vote on six city proposals.

• One topic is the “Affordable Housing for Zurich” initiative with two counter-proposals.

• The “Bye Gender Star!” initiative calls for a ban on the gender star in municipal ordinances.

• The design plan for the VZA1 area envisages a new UBS high-rise.

• The renewal of the town hall bridge is intended to improve flood protection and costs 58,345 million francs.

The people of Zurich are challenged: In addition to four federal ones, there are six municipal templates to choose from. An overview:

In response to the popular initiative “Affordable Housing for Zurich”, the city council and the local council have drawn up a direct and indirect counter-proposal.

The direct counter-proposal is about changing the city’s constitution so that the purchase of properties by the city and its housing foundations is anchored as a goal. This should bring the city closer to the “third goal”. The “third goal” has been anchored in the municipal ordinance since 2011 and states that a third of all rental apartments in the city should be non-profit by 2050. In addition, the city council should be given the authority to issue guarantees and loans of a maximum of 20 million francs.

The indirect counter-proposal wants to increase the capital of the four municipal housing foundations. A total of 300 million francs is planned, 50 million more than the initiative calls for.

In order to make all genders visible in the language, the city of Zurich uses the gender star in official communications. The popular initiative “Bye Genderstar!”, which was submitted on May 23, 2023, aims to ensure that the city authorities use “clear, understandable and easy-to-read language” and avoid using special characters within words.

UBS wants to build a 110 meter high office tower near Altstetten train station for up to 2,800 employees. Shops, restaurants or childcare facilities are required on the ground floor, and “publicly accessible, audience-oriented use for at least 25 hours per week” on the top floors.

Since a committee led by the Young Greens initiated the referendum, voters will decide on it on Sunday.

In March 2024, Zurich city voters accepted the SVP popular initiative and the counter-proposal “No golden parachutes for members of the authorities” with 55.8 percent. Former SP city councilor Claudia Nielsen caused a stir in 2018 when she voluntarily stopped running and still received a severance payment of 856,000 francs. The case of SP district school president Roberto Rodriguez, who received a severance payment of 651,000 francs in 2021, also caused a stir.

Despite accepting the proposal, the local council decided that compensation should still be possible for members of the authorities such as justices of the peace, data protection officers or district school presidents – jobs with annual salaries between 113,000 and 252,000 francs. For the SVP it was a “blatant disregard for the will of the people”, which is why the party called for a referendum.

The now very popular town hall bridge was built in the early 1970s. It’s just that it’s getting a bit old now and has some deficiencies that will be remedied with the new replacement building. There is a need for action when it comes to natural hazards: so that the water can drain away easily during floods and extreme floods, the bridge must be rebuilt. Weekly markets and carousel operations should remain possible. The costs of the project are expected to amount to 58,345 million francs, with the canton covering eight million francs.

The first results from the constituencies are expected around 2:15 p.m. In the voting ticker we report on the latest projections and results.

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