In Marseille, how to still build new housing but without encroaching on nature?
The question comes up very frequently in Marseille, but also more widely in Provence: how to better meet the demand for new housing while taking into account the new obligations of the climate and resilience law (August 22, 2021)?
On a need 4,000 to 5,000 new homes each year in Marseille. In 2017, 4,000 new apartments were built in this way. With the pandemic, construction fell to 2,000 in 2020, then new 2,200 homes last year, to reach the target of 3,000 new homes this year.
New obligations for promoters in Marseille
Faced with these imperatives to house the Marseillais, the left-wing municipality is imposing new rules on promoters and it seems that permits are more difficult to obtain. The city systematically demands that the infrastructures around new constructions be taken into account. “The Far-West side that there was before, it’s over“says Mathilde Chaboche, the elected official in charge of urban planning in Marseille. We now have to worry about roads, public facilities such as schools, vegetation, etc.”The projects that I see coming are much more qualitative“on the part of the promoters, believes Mathilde Chaboche who insists on the importance of leaving unbuilt areas “so that people can breathe”.
This approach is reinforced by the agreement signed last week by the regional prefect with all the players in the sector for land sobriety. That is to say using less and less new land, to rebuild the city on the city, using industrial wastelands in particular. “There are these spaces that are happy to be redeveloped (…) there are old neighborhoods to rehabilitate (…) this is the meaning of this agreement signed with the local authorities”. Goal : “zero net artificialisation”, namely: no construction that completely encroaches on nature.
“We cannot bequeath to our children a totally urbanized region in which there would be no more natural spaces” -Christophe Mirmand, regional prefect
The example of the Henri Fabre park in Marseille
Latest example of this problem: the future construction of a small building in the Henri Fabre park in Marseille (8th arrondissement). A building permit was granted by the former municipality and it is not at all to the taste of the current team in place. The residents of this green lung close to the sea are also mobilizing against the project for a new building in the district. “It’s really what not to do“, believes Agathe, a resident, “this will damage the site, we build too much!“.”There is no infrastructure, public transport or roads, it’s unbearable“, believes Sophie, another resident.
The residents of the Henri Fabre park will meet this Saturday, May 21 at 2 p.m. on site. The assistant in charge of town planning offers the promoter and local residents to receive them in order to agree on a more respectful construction of the identity of this park.