Justice still says “No” to Val Tolosa, the mega shopping center project west of Toulouse
And three! Three cancellations of building permits and a new blow for the Val Tolosa mega shopping center project, in Plaisance-du-Touch, west of Toulouse. The third license was canceled by the administrative court of appeal of Toulouse on Wednesday May 25.
It is therefore a new victory for the opponents of this project launched in the 2000s. “With pleasing consistency, the decisions of the different jurisdictions confirm the wrong directions taken for so many years, in particular the destruction of protected species and natural environments and the insufficiency of road services.“, applauds the group of opponents No to Val tolosa.
“The Val Tolosa project should finally end up in the archives of the Great Useless Projects, stopped in time by the mobilization of citizens for more than 17 years” notes the collective.
The Val Tolosa project, launched in 2003 first under the name Portes de Gascogne, initially planned the construction of a hyper-shopping center on 44 hectares of agricultural land, with a hypermarket and 160 commercial areas. The digging of a lake and the planting of green spaces had also been programmed.
A dozen unfavorable court decisions
The property developer Unibail, which has been carrying out the shopping center project for almost twenty years, can still appeal the decision. This cancellation of the third building permit is the ninth court decision rejected for the project. Other decisions have also been made over the past ten years in favor of the project.
However, the collective does not close the door to new, more suitable projects: “Our collective, for its part, is open to any reflection proposing an intelligent vision of the Plateau de la Ménude, with elected officials, private decision-makers, the various citizen associations and all Plaisançois concerned about global decisions impacting the future of their common.”