new studies for the renovation of the Chemin Bas d’Avignon-Clos d’Orville district
A new phase of work is under study in the Chemin Bas district of Avignon-Clos d’Orville in Nîmes. It is decided more than 15 years after a first global rehabilitation plan. In total, the renovation of priority neighborhoods will cost 470 million euros.
“Look at the humidity! At my neighbor downstairs, it’s the same! His kitchen wall is identical to mine, it’s crumbling everywhere! “testifies and laments Soraya Zaidi, resident of the Clos d’Orville district.
Housing from the 1960s has become dilapidated in the Chemin Bas d’Avignon-Clos d’Orville district of Nîmes. In this popular and priority district, 90% of the inhabitants are tenants.
Do you see the electrical outlet here? It is very dangerous for children! We can’t take it any longer, we would like to live in decent, clean apartments. There, on the impression of paying rent for sleep merchants!
Over the years, the inhabitants have seen their places of life deteriorate greatly.
Chemin Bas d’Avignon, a district whose history began in the 1960s, originally to accommodate returnees from Algeria.
Today, more than 7,000 people live there, a very young population, with 60% of households below the poverty line.
A consultation program with residents
In 2005, the city of Nîmes launched a major urban renewal project. Demolitions, renovations and new programs: a transformation is already underway. Today, a new renovation program is under study. Albin Lépine is an architect and urban planner, he works on the development of the district.
“Today, the neighborhood project has two main ambitions: to change the image of the neighborhood and open it up“explains the architect.”Our job is to get to meet people and make them understand that they are the decision-makers of this project, that it is they who will use it, and therefore inevitably, we need their opinion and their expectations “ .
Residents can submit their proposals at the project house. The city’s elected officials will validate the final plan at the end of December. The inhabitants of Chemin Bas d’Avignon and Clos d’Orville will be patients, the site will not intervene for many years.