Truths and untruths
Fact-checking
A few factual answers to some of the information out there
At the end of 2020, the town of Yverdon-les-Bains submitted its draft allocation plan for the Place d’Armes, including a 1,000-space underground parking lot, to the canton for prior review. The cantonal services returned in June 2021. It concludes that the project is non-compliant in a number of areas: traffic load, parking, environmental impact assessment and noise, in addition to a number of other “to-be-adapted” elements. These non-conformities involve fundamental elements of the project. It’s not possible to respond with minor adaptations. Following this feedback, the Municipality, still led by Mr Carrard, the former syndic, commissioned a study to determine the size of the parking requirement. Using the VSS standards that apply throughout Switzerland, this analysis results in an estimated requirement of between 430 and 730 places. These standards must be met for a new project to have any chance of success. The counter-project provides for the maximum dimensions that meet these standards (730 spaces + 70 P+R spaces).
Under no circumstances. If the initiative is accepted, the Municipality will have to draw up a new land-use plan, which will have to be submitted to the cantonal authorities for authorization. If this allocation plan includes a 1,000-space underground parking lot, it will be rejected, for the same reasons as explained in the negative cantonal notice of 2021. Should a reduced version of the allocation plan pass this stage, it is likely to encounter opposition and legal challenges. At the end of this process, the Municipality should carry out the authorization procedure for the construction itself, again with the possibility of objections and appeals.
With its unrealistic demands, the initiative further postpones any realization of a redevelopment project for the Place d’Armes.
No, for several reasons:
– The text of the initiative explicitly requests: “The initiative requests that an underground parking lot of the order of 1,000 spaces , integrating the surface parking spaces in the city center and the Park + Rail at the station, be built as soon as possible […]”
– The VSS standards, applied to the “city center” perimeter, estimate a parking requirement of between 430 and 730 spaces (excluding Park & Ride). These standards are enshrined in law and must be met if the project authorization procedure is to have any chance of success. In this context, a 1,000-space underground parking lot is in any case unrealistic. The “realistic” variant that comes closest to meeting the initiative’s demands is an 800-space underground parking lot with all surface spaces removed, in compliance with VSS standards (730 spaces + 70 P+R spaces).
– On the other hand, the private company that owns the underground parking lot will have every interest in exerting pressure to reduce parking opportunities outside its infrastructure.
If a large underground parking lot is built, it’s clear that all the trees within the perimeter will have to be felled. Secondly, due to the shallowness and strength of the soil above the parking slab, it will not be possible to plant large trees. The initiative is therefore aimed much more at creating a real heat island, whereas existing trees should be preserved and new ones planted. More information
The 1,000-space project is based on the total privatization of parking in the city center. Based on the 2018 project, which was rejected by the cantonal authorities, the city would cede the Place d’Armes surface free of charge to a private company, which would then build the underground parking lot and collect the profits. The company would initially finance the bulk of the work to the tune of CHF 60 million, and would then collect the parking revenues, estimated at around CHF 2 million a year (instead of being collected by the city as at present). Worse still, in the contract, the city guarantees the private group a turnover for 10 years, and undertakes to pay up to CHF 150,000 per year if this figure is not reached.
Over the 70 years of free parking, a minimum of almost CHF 140 million would accrue to the private group, to the detriment of the city. All in all, the costs to the city are much higher with this privatization than with public construction. All this at the expense of taxpayers and parking lot users. It is therefore highly misleading to claim that the project is already financed.