The Administrative Court of Appeal confirms the cancellation of the urban plan of Toulouse Métropole
By Quentin Marais
Published on
During a hearing held on Tuesday March 30, 2021, the local intermunicipal urban plan of Toulouse Métropole was canceled by the administrative court of the Pink City. A decision with serious consequences for the urban development of the entire Metropolis, which has just been proven by the Administrative Court of Appeal of Bordeaux, Tuesday, February 15, 2022.
37 municipalities and 46,000 hectares
More called PLUIH, this urban plan governs the urban planning rules of the 46,000 hectares of Toulouse Métropole, i.e. 37 municipalities in total. Adopted in April 2019, he had been the subject of something 41 requests filed to meet him.
A lively pass of arms
On May 20, 2021, less than two months after the cancellation of this plan, the administrative court of Toulouse had refused to modulate its decision over time, which would have allowed Toulouse Métropole to review its file, without completely canceling the PLUi-H.
Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse, then reacted strongly, denouncing a decision “taken by three judges in a meeting room, that tramples the will of the people“.
The day after the remarks of the first aedile, on May 21, the administrative court had given a scathing response, arguing that the “judgments are rendered” in the name of the French people, and this in the “strict observance laws and regulations”.
Direction Bordeaux
In his speech, the mayor, re-elected in June 2020 at the helm of France’s fourth largest city, announced Toulouse Métropole’s intention to “appeal against this judgment very soon with the Administrative Court of Appeal of Bordeauxand will file with this court a request for a stay of execution”.
On February 15, 2022, a judgment of this same jurisdiction confirm cancellation of the Toulouse Métropole urban plan. Back to square one, and to the old planning documents, for the 37 municipalities of the Metropolis and their 783,000 inhabitants.
The Court confirms that the analysis of the past consumption of natural, agricultural and forest areas appearing in the presentation report and the justification of the objectives of moderation of this consumption appearing in this report and in the sustainable planning and development project presented material shortcomings likely to affect the planning choices made by the plan.
Toulouse Métropole has adopted “a metropolitan pact”
Faced with this situation and in order to remain within the housing construction objectives set out in the PLUi-H, Toulouse Métropole had adopted, on Thursday October 14, 2021, a “metropolitan housing pact”.
This “pact” takes up the fundamentals of the PLUi-H of 2019. The objective of building 7,000 housing units per year in the agglomeration remains.
“This production target is shared between the municipality of Toulouse and three groups of municipalities. The participation of each of these groups in the dynamics of metropolitan construction has been established according to the temporality of the public transport service, the share of centralities and the population weight of the municipalities, with a concern for coherence between town planning, travel and level of services and equipment”, explains Toulouse Métropole.
In detail, as in the canceled PLUi-H, it is Toulouse which will have to build the most with a target of 3,500 housing units to be built each year. The 36 other municipalities share the remaining 3,500 housing units.
For the opposition, “justice continues to challenge the policy of Jean-Luc Moudenc”
“It is an unfortunately unsurprising decision given the shortcomings and the fraudulent data triggered in the first instance”, reacts the municipalist opposition group AMC in a press release. “This is bad news for Toulouse and the 37 municipalities of the Metropolis”, considers these elected officials, who regret “the stubbornness of Jean-Luc Moudenc who refused to take into account environmental constructions, and wasted precious time to the community by persisting in long and costly legal proceedings”. He also denounces the “blindness” and “incompetence” of the mayor of Toulouse, who “makes our Metropolis that of traffic jams and delays on all floors”. Finally, they emphasize that “the cancellation of the PLUIH, which is added to that of the PDU in the first instance, leaves the community drained of any clear framework in terms of town planning and housing since this decision confirms that these are the PLU and POS which now prevail until the advent of a new PLUIH which should not occur before 2025”. And to ironize: “At least he will get there before the third metro line, initially promised in 2024”.
.
Was this article helpful to you? Note that you can follow Actu Toulouse in the My Actu space. In one click, after registration, you will find all the news of your favorite cities and brands.