Four procedures Roger Federer renounces boathouse in Rapperswil-Jona SG

Several buildings are being constructed on Roger Federer's property in Rapperswil-Jona SG. However, the former tennis star has now decided not to build a boathouse.

Roger Federer has decided not to build the planned boathouse on the banks of his villa in Rapperswil-Jona. The Federal Office for the Environment had previously intervened with an appeal against the permit that had already been granted.

The waiver is an agreement between the developer and the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the town of Rapperswil-Jona wrote in a press release on Wednesday. The renaturation of the lake shore with decontamination, the demolition of the existing boat house with access channel and the construction of a new boat landing stage with jetty and access channel, to which the Federal Office for the Environment had raised no objections, could, however, be realized.

At the beginning of September, the city of Rapperswil-Jona granted permission for the construction of a new boathouse with a jetty. The pending objections were rejected by both the town council and the relevant cantonal authorities. Finally, the Bafu filed an official complaint. The federal government remained tight-lipped about the reasons for its intervention.

Boathouse triggered four proceedings

Opposition to the construction of a new boathouse on the lakeshore of Roger Federer's property had been stirring for a long time. The project triggered a total of four legal proceedings. The Rives Publiques association, for example, which campaigns for free access to lakeshores, fought vehemently against the construction project.

In 2019, it became known that Roger Federer had bought a plot of land measuring almost 17,000 square meters in Kempratner Bucht in Rapperswil-Jona. Six buildings are now under construction on the site directly on Lake Zurich. Several objections, old development plans, a dispute over the lakeshore path and the pandemic postponed construction several times.