Grassland rezoning

“Million-dollar poker” for building land of the City of Vienna

Koza (left) and his head of the building authority want to put the brakes on building development in Vösendorf. Their sights are set on a "Viennese field".(Bild: Gmeeinde Vösendorf)

The City of Vienna owns 65,000 square meters of building land reserve in Vösendorf - the head of the town, Hannes Koza, wants to reclassify it as grassland.

A well-protected real estate treasure of the City of Vienna is located just across the state border, namely in Vösendorf. Land that belonged to the Habsburg dynasty in the distant past and, after an eventful history, fell to the federal capital.

Grassland instead of building land
Mayor Hannes Koza is attracting attention in the early municipal election campaign: The ÖVP politician is planning to revoke the building land designation for the Viennese plots. In future, the 65,000-square-metre "field" is to be converted into grassland. The loss of value for the federal capital could amount to tens of millions of euros - and could also result in the municipality in the district of Mödling being sued.

Although the Lower Austrian Spatial Planning Act states that landowners must be compensated accordingly in the event of rezoning, this is only for costs already incurred. For example, for development work that has already been carried out. But that is certainly not enough for the Viennese. Koza is relaxed, however: "We are fighting to preserve nature. Our 27 hectares of building land reserves are sufficient even without the Viennese reasons," says the head of the village.