Kahlenberg Cable Car Project: Formal Review Of EIA Obligation Completed

The EIA determination procedure at the request of the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology on the formal question of whether an environmental impact assessment is required for the “Kahlenberg Cable Car” project will soon be completed with a determination notice. Specifically, the resolution is on the agenda of the Vienna state government on May 14, 2024.

The investigation procedure carried out, in which the authority was bound to all legal requirements and framework conditions of the UVP-G 2000, showed that no environmental impact assessment needs to be carried out for the “Kahlenberg cable car”, including the planned P & R system.

Whether the submitted project can be realized depends on many different approval procedures - e.g. forestry law, railway law, water law or nature conservation law.

Facts of the UVP-G 2000 checked

In the official investigation, all relevant elements of the UVP-G 2000 (new construction of a cable car, new construction of a railway, construction of publicly accessible parking spaces or parking garages, clearing, expansion of clearing) were examined.

According to the results of the investigation, the cable car offense newly created with the 2023 amendment to the UVP-G was not applicable due to a transitional provision standardized by the federal legislature. With regard to the offense “construction of publicly accessible parking spaces or parking garages”, the audit carried out has shown that due to cumulation with other public vehicle parking spaces in the surrounding area, the relevant threshold for this offense is not reached. For the other offenses under consideration, the relevant threshold values were not reached or were not applied at all.

The formal examination has shown that there is no obligation to carry out an environmental impact assessment for the project in question. After the decision has been made, the decision will be announced in an appropriate form by the office of the Vienna State Government, made available for public inspection, published on the website of the City of Vienna - Environmental Protection and made available as a download for six weeks.

No decision about implementation

Overall, this is now an official decision bound to the current legal situation - and not a decision on the matter itself. An EIA assessment notice only makes a statement about the authority's responsibility and not about whether the cable car can be built or not. The latter question depends on the outcome of the approval procedures still to be carried out - such as forestry law, railway law, water law or nature conservation law.

Technical data