Making land available : cultural legal comparison of the German building land mobilisation act and the partial revision of the Swiss Spatial Planning Act

Planning practice is confronted with seemingly contradictory challenges, such as the qualitative and quantitative provision of housing paired with reducing land consumption. To address this apparent dilemma, legislators are increasingly relying on densification. However, a fundamental prerequisite (and often a significant challenge) for this is the availability of the land required. Recent planning law reforms in Germany and Switzerland aim to increase the effectiveness and speed at which land is made available for inner development, thus meeting the seemingly conflicting planning policy goals. This paper compares recent legislative efforts in Germany and Switzerland using the comparative law method. The German Building Land Mobilization Act includes amendments to the Building Code (Baugesetzbuch) and the Building Use Ordinance (Baunutzungsverordnung), intended to enable faster activation of building land and the creation of more affordable housing. To this end, the amendment expands existing instruments for the activation of building land and introduces simplifications to the planning law. In Switzerland, the Spatial Planning Act has been partially revised to achieve inner urban development through precise regulations on the expansion of building zones and instruments to ensure the implementation of zoning plans.