ABSTRACT
This chapter is about spatial plan-making in the canton of Zurich and in particular the preparation of the Ztirich cantonal guiding plan. The organizational base for plan-making was the spatial planning office of the canton of Zurich. A key issue is how this activity linked to federal-level and commune-level planning functions, as introduced in legislation in 1980. The case demonstrates the much greater importance given to strategic spatial planning in the 1990s in Switzerland, compared to traditional land-use planning as it was practised in the years before. This change in planning philosophy is to a large extent attributable to the difficult economic situation during the recession of the early 1990s, which forced the authorities at all planning levels to think about strategies in order to improve the competitive position of Switzerland compared to other European city regions.
