Lyon 1st. Towards the creation of a “wet garden” in place of the parking lot at the Clos Saint-Benoît?
The Town Hall of 1uh arrondissement has just launched an ambitious project to transform the parking lot at Clos Saint-Benoît into a “rain garden” in order to collect the water that runs off the hill.
Below Place Rouville, the private parking lot at Clos Saint-Benoît could soon experience a new lease of life. The Town Hall of 1uh arrondissement wants to transform this space, owned by the Metropolis of Lyon, into an island of freshness, all while highlighting the water which reappears from the balmes of the hill and trickles down part of the site. “It’s an ambitious project and we are at the start of discussions”, indicates Laurence Hugues, assistant to the town hall of the place Sathonay.
Water “essential in the face of a heat wave”
The idea? Find a solution to prevent the water flowing down the hill from returning to the sewerage network. Several ideas are on the table, such as the creation of a rain garden accompanied by green spaces to replace the twenty or so parking spaces. “For us, this project is also a beautiful symbol: instead of having water as a source of risk and disorder, we would like to show how much it is an essential resource in the face of the heat wave”, adds Yasmine Bouagga, mayor of 1uh. No completion date has yet been put forward, but the project does appear in the mandate plan recently unveiled by the elected officials of the 1uh.