Toulouse: opponents of the Tour Occitanie appeal
Unsuccessful at first instance for one of their two appeals against the Tour Occitanie, the opponents of the first Toulouse skyscraper appealed.
The associations which oppose the construction of a 150-meter-high tower near the Matabiau station in Toulouse, are not disarming. The association No to the skyscraper, which, since 2017, has been leading the fight, as well as the Amis de la terre and the DAL, which did not win their case before the administrative court of Toulouse last September, did yesterday appeal of this judgment.
This appeal, which dates back to October 2018, is the first legal action launched by these associations. It concerns a deliberation by Toulouse Métropole which exempts the promoter and investor who won the Tour competition, the Compagnie de Phalsbourg, from carrying out part of social housing as well as parking spaces for bicycles. On September 17, the administrative judges did not follow suit, considering that the social housing obligation was respected at the scale of the perimeter of the urban project.
A second appeal is still in the hands of the courts, the one which seeks the cancellation of the building permit issued in July 2019 by the town hall of Toulouse. According to Richard Mebaoudj, president of No to the skyscraper in Toulouse, the hearing could be scheduled soon before the administrative court. Opponents of the project located on a plot of land belonging to the SNCF express many sorrows against it. Besides “the lack of consultation” which surrounded its birth, they point the finger at an “anti-ecological” tour which “accentuates gentrification”.
For its part, the Compagnie de Phalsbourg indicated that it was maintaining this project in which it believes despite the virus crisis but without advancing the schedule because of the appeals of opponents.