Canton approves alternative to Franz Weber project

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND / AMONG THE VINES – Voters in Vaud will have the final say 18 May about how land around the famous Lavaux vineyards can be used and developed.

The governing cantonal council Tuesday voted strongly to support a parliamentary plan that would cover land use and development in Lavaux, whose ancient terraced vineyards are renowned as a Unesco World Heritage site.

Environmentalist Franz Weber’s Helvetia Nostra foundation and the Sauver Lavaux Association launched a popular initiative in March 2009 to oppose some building projects in the area and bring some order to further development. Enough signatures were collected to bring it to a vote, but as the restrictive measures it proposes were debated, the government and parliament began to call it too restrictive.

The cantonal upper house’s counter-initiative will now appear on the ballot as an alternative measure to protect the area while allowing some development.