Toulouse. Justice has decided: the start of the construction of the 3rd metro line will not be blocked
By David Saint-Sernin
Published on
The Friends of the Earth association had filed a referral before the administrative court of Toulouse to try to stop the launch of the works of the 3e third metro line, renamed line C by Tisséo.
They should suspend the decree of the prefect
From a strictly legal point of view, in order to bring the metro construction site to a halt, even before it had started, the association had requested the suspension of the execution of environmental authorization issued by the prefect of Haute-Garonne to the project of 3e line, in the spring of 2022.
An “emergency” summary which makes it possible to stop the civil engineering site of the metro before the case is judged on the merits in a few months.
felled trees
The association then insisted on “the urgency of suspending this environmental authorization as many trees were about to be felled and the clearings of the right-of-way risked damaging the habitat of protected species”. , recalls the court whose interim judge rendered his decision on Friday, December 9, 2022.
“We believe that there is now an emergency: trees sometimes cut down, animal species moved in the best of cases. The irreversible side of certain works obliges us to go as quickly as possible to seek the opinion of justice”, specify Les Amis de la Terre Midi-Pyrénées”, explained to Toulouse news Friends of the Earth on November 9th.
The Railroad Star brandished as an alternative
In its appeal, the association had also put forward an alternative project, that of the railway star carried by the collective “Rallumons l’étoile”. A RER Toulousain project with trains running every 15 or 30 minutes on the current rail network.
The latter rejected the association’s request, “for lack of doubt about the legality of the contested decision”.
On what basis could the court have suspended the environmental permit?
Article L. 521-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice allows the administrative judge to suspend the execution of a decision or of some of its effects when two conditions are met: the urgency to rule and the existence of a serious doubt about the legality of the decision. If one of these conditions is not met, the application for interim suspension is rejected.
“No incompatibility with the 2012 PDU”
The administrative court details in a press release:
“The Friends of the Earth – Midi-Pyrénées association has raised numerous pleas against the disputed decree, both in terms of its formal legality and its internal legality. In particular, during the hearing held on December 5, 2022, it insisted on the urgency of suspending this environmental authorization as many trees were about to be cut down and the clearings of the right-of-way risk damaging the habitat of protected species. His argument focused on two main points: the incompatibility of the project with the urban transport plan (PDU) of 2012 and the existence of satisfactory alternative solutionss making it possible to avoid having to derogate from the prohibition on harming protected species”.
“A decree of the prefect not illegal”
He pursues :
“However, with regard to the first point, if the PDU 2020-2030 has been canceled by this court on January 22, 2021 (an appeal is pending before the Administrative Court of Appeal of
Toulouse), the judge in chambers implicitly implied that the PDU of 2012 brought back into force by the effect of the cancellation is only binding on the administrative authorities in terms of parking and road police and that nothing imposes the compatibility of the contested environmental authorization with the PDU. He also implicitly considered that
the absence of price into account competing “railway star” projectcarried by the Association of users of public transport in the Toulouse conurbation and its surroundings, was not such as to give rise to serious doubts about the legality of the impugned prefectural decree.
Judgment on the merits
“A collegial formation of the administrative court of Toulouse examiner will now be at the bottom of the legality of the decree”, announces the court.
In the meantime, the civil engineering site of the 3e metro line, or line C, can start. This start was announced for December 15, 2022.
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