Toulouse. Despite a petition with 18,000 signatures, this cedar may have to be felled
Through Lucie Fraisse
Published on
This is a long-awaited project in the neighborhood of the Seven Deniers in Toulouse. A stone’s throw from the Job spaceoverlooking the square of the same name, the Closed job is a program led by Toulouse Métropole Habitat which is to be launched on the Blagnac road.
More than 18,000 signatures
Eventually, there will be housing (rental and social accession), but also public facilities such as a cribno restorera multipurpose room and a commercial space. The work has just started at the start of 2023. And is already angering local residents.
A petition has just been put online. by a resident of the neighborhood to save a 13-meter high Cyprus cedar, located on the site of the construction site.
“The cedar has been there since at least 1955, it grew with Job’s workers, not to mention that many migratory birds and parakeets live there. It will disappear by next week. It is so worthy, so magnificent! He has his place around this construction, he has his place with us.”
“Respect your commitments, keep the cedar”
“Save our cedar”; “At the cedar citizen”; “Respect your commitments, keep the cedar” : since Thursday January 12, 2023, banners have bloomed on the balconies and windows of the buildings overlooking the site. And in a few days, the petition registered more than 18,000 signatures. A performance when you know that the district of Seven Deniers has just over 7,500 inhabitants.
“This slaughter is illegal,” said Thomas Bunel, president of the Seven Deniers neighborhood committee. Both on the building permit plans and on the related texts, existing trees are included in the project and must be retained. These requirements must be respected, otherwise it is not the project for which the town hall has granted a building permit. »
A letter to Jean-Luc Moudenc
The neighborhood committee therefore wrote to Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse, to ask him to take an “interrupted work stoppage” urgently. A letter was also sent to Bertrand Serp, municipal and metropolitan elected official, but also president of Toulouse Métropole Habitat, the organization in charge of the Clos de Job site.
“We ask you to order the said companies in extreme urgency and expressly not to cut down the existing trees in accordance with the requirements of the building permit.”
Already felled trees, bailiffs on the spot
According to the findings of the neighborhood committee, several trees that should be kept according to the plan related to the building permit have already been felled.
An online subscription was introduced to finance the place of bailiffs who came to see that trees had indeed been felled, but also to identify those that needed to be protected according to what is announced by the building permit.
Toulouse Métropole Habitat recognizes an “error”
Solicited by Toulouse news, Toulouse housing metropolis recognizes that several trees have been cut when they should not have been.
“We understand the excitement caused by the start of work on the Clos de Job project in the Sept Deniers district since two trees, a small plane tree and a cedar, were felled by mistake.”
Cedar could present “a risk to public safety”
As for cedar, which is the subject of a petition with several thousand signatures, Toulouse Métropole Habitat remains cautious.
In a letter addressed to Toulouse news, the organization explains: “The cedar will be found near the buildings constructed. Following an alert from the city’s green spaces department, this subject is the subject of a study in order to verify its state of rooting. Weakened, it could indeed pose a risk to public safety in the event of a fall. »
Ten trees replanted
In the same letter, Bertrand Serp indicates: “On the Clos de Job project, we have planned to replant ten treesspecies of tall stems in the long term, in order to compensate and even densify the revegetation new spaces. »
Species which, according to Toulouse Métropole Habitat, have been chosen with care, selected according to the typology of the terrain, but also to climate change. Not sure, however, that these announcements bring great consolation to the more than 18,000 signatories (to date) of the petition if the Cyprus cedar of the Seven Deniers should ultimately be felled if the study in progress confirms its fragility.
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