Where are we with the Tour Occitanie construction project in Toulouse?
Has the Tour Occitanie become the Arlésienne in Toulouse? The project has been a cause for several years, work has not yet resumed due to legal action by opponents. Two appeals are still pending : an appeal in cassation before the Council of State, filed last August by three local residents and four associations (France Nature Environnement, No to the skyscraper in Toulouse, Right to Housing and Friends of the Earth), appeal decided after the rejection of the administrative court in June
concerning the cancellation of the building permit. The permit was issued by the town hall of Toulouse in July 2019. The other is an appeal to the Bordeaux Court of Appeal concerning the modification of the PLU, the local urban plan, by the mayor of Toulouse. Of the recourse which will not be purged before, at least, the end of the summer next. Toulouse residents are therefore not ready to see the 38-storey skyscraper emerge from the ground.
The promoter is impatient
The Parisian promoter of the Tour Occitanie, the company of Phalsbourg, recognizes through the voice of its deputy director of development Eric Paillot “be bored” by the legal actions of opponents who play the watch: “they lost two appeals at first instance before the administrative court of Toulouse and appealed for one and seized the Council of State for the other, while the project passed under the radars of the largest control bodies and that the project complies with the law“.
An ongoing project promises the promoter, “it is an extraordinary real estate operation in France, unheard of in Toulouse, with renowned architects.” The cost of construction was initially estimated at 130 million euros. It has undoubtedly increased today, in view of inflation. If the work begins in the fall of 2023, it will last at least three years For now, the Compagnie de Phalsbourg did not buy the land on which the tower was to be builtwhich belongs to the SNCF.
Opponents clear themselves and ask questions
“Nothing prevented the promoter from starting the site if he wanted to, because our appeals are not suspensive“, recalls Richard Mébaoudj, one of the founders of the association “No to the skyscraper of Toulouse-Collective for a citizen urban planning”. But the opponent welcomes the fact that the town hall and the Compagnie de Phalsbourg have agreed to do not start work:in order to respect the procedure, show that they do not pass in force. Launching such important and judged work, if it is necessary to go back, is probably not wise, moreover”.
The Compagnie de Phalsbourg recently suffered a setback in Toulouseshe was ogling the university restaurant on the island of Ramier
and had even obtained a building permit to make it a cultural center, a promise of sale with Le Crous, owner of the premises. Eventually, TFC won the ultimate tender to install the club’s performance centre. This incident leads opponents to question: “Will relations between the municipality and the promoter suffer from this episode? In any case, this is not a good signal for their future collaboration within the framework of the construction of the Tour Occitanie.“comments Richard Mébaoudj. “The two files have nothing to do, nothing is linked” replies the Compagnie de Phalsbourg.
The town hall of Toulouse, requested by France Bleu Occitanie, does not speak as long as appeals are still in progress.
The Tour Occitanie should house around a hundred housing units, 11,000 m² of offices (including those of the SNCF), a 4-star Hilton hotel, a panoramic bar, and this near the Matabiau station and the metro (including the future third line) .
“The Occitanie tower, I am for,” said the region’s president, Carole Delga, last month during the national meeting of urban planning agencies in Toulouse.