the administrative court rejects the appeal against the 3rd metro line
The summary proceedings filed by the association Les Amis de La Terre was rejected on Friday December 9, 2022 by the administrative court of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne). For the administrative court, there is no serious doubt about the legality of the environmental authorization granted to the future third metro line.
Work on the future 3rd metro line will be able to continue. Friday December 9, 2022, at the end of the afternoon, the administrative court of Toulouse (Upper Garonne) rejected the summary filed by Friends of the Earth.
Supported by eight collectives for the defense of the environment and transport users, the association considers in particular that the environmental authorization granted to the future metro line proved to be illegal. According to her, the displacement of dozens of protected species as well as the felling of the first trees as part of the preparatory work would harm biodiversity.
Two main ones were highlighted: the incompatibility of the project with the urban transport plan (PDU) of 2012 and the existence of satisfactory alternative solutions making it possible to avoid having to derogate from the prohibition on harming protected species.
For the first, the administrative court considers that “the 2012 PDU reinstated by the effect of the cancellation is binding on the administrative authorities only in terms of parking and road police and that nothing imposes the compatibility of the contested environmental authorization with the PDU.“
As for the second, the judge in chambers considers that “the absence of prices taken into account for the competing “railway star” project, supported by the Association of Public Transport Users of the Toulouse conurbation and its surroundings, was not such as to give rise to serious doubt on the legality of the impugned prefectural decree.“
But the case is not yet closed. The administrative court of Toulouse must examine “on the merits” the legality of the decree of the prefect of Haute-Garonne, taken on April 15, 2022, giving the environmental authorization for the realization of the 3rd metro.