Question juridique clé
Whether costs of detailed examination and expert reports in a protection procedure may be charged to the landowner/applicant.
Solution extraite
No. There was no statutory basis in the municipal fee ordinance, and under the causation principle such costs could not be imposed because the investigations served the public interest, not the applicant's private interest.
Motifs extraits
Nature and heritage protection measures are pursued exclusively in the public interest. The fee ordinance contained no specific rule for such costs, and general administrative fee provisions did not apply. The provocation request merely triggered a procedure that the authorities would have had to conduct ex officio in any event.