It is perhaps not yet the epilogue, but a new important step has just been reached in the legal saga of the so-called chestnut tree affair, in Chartres. The merits of the case were judged by the administrative court of Orléans (Loiret) on October 12. The decision was made Thursday, October 26. Threatened chestnut trees have a new reprieve.
The magistrates ruled on three appeals filed by local residents opposed to the project to construct two collective residential buildings, located on Boulevard de la Courtille, in Chartres, on land formerly belonging to the Chamber of Trades and Crafts of Eure-et-Loir (CMA 28).
Felling of chestnut trees in Chartres: what the public rapporteur recommends to the administrative court of Orléans
Justice seized
To protest against the felling of three chestnut trees, planned by the owner, also a developer, community activists and citizens mobilized and occupied the plot, day and night, in August and September 2022.
A couple of local residents took legal action to demand the cancellation of the building permit. The Orléans administrative court, which followed the recommendations of the public rapporteur, decided to revoke the building permit of April 15, 2022 and the amending permit of March 14, 2023, issued by the City of Chartres to the real estate developer.
Chartres chestnut tree case: the court confirms the suspension of felling but lifts the financial penalty
To justify their decision, the magistrates noted that the two decrees of the City “disregard the provisions” of two articles “of the regulations of the urban plan of the commune of Chartres”. However, the court gives the developer the opportunity to “obtain the regularization of the defects noted”, within five months. The City of Chartres and the developer will have to pay jointly, to the couple of residents, the sum of €2,000.
According to the judges, the project does not respect the height standards set by the PLU of the commune of Chartres. One of the buildings included in the plans is 25 cm higher than authorized standards.
Sale of land to the City
The magistrates raise another issue, which concerns the limit between the developer’s land and the public domain. The court notes that the conformity of the fence planned in the project will remain “subject to the transfer” of part of the developer’s land for the benefit of the City of Chartres. However, “it does not appear from the documents in the file that such a transfer took place”.
The local couple filed a second appeal, this time to challenge the non-opposition of the City of Chartres to the prior declaration made by the developer, for the felling of the famous chestnut trees.
premium The planned felling of three chestnut trees is controversial in Chartres
The administrative court decides that the decree of June 2022, issued by the City, “is annulled”, because, specify the judges, it “does not provide for replanting, in the classified wooded area located on the plot of implementation of the project, at least three trees which could ultimately reach a size equivalent to that of the chestnut trees to be felled.
The Chartres PLU specifies that “each felled tree will result in the replanting of a tree of equivalent size”. Here too, the promoter has the possibility of reviewing his copy. The judges give him three months to comply. The developer and the City of Chartres must jointly pay the sum of €1,500 to the Chartrains couple.
“We are rather satisfied with these decisions, even if we would have preferred that they were rejected. We are being asked for regularizations. We will file a modification permit.”
Me Vincent Rivierre (the developer’s lawyer)
The third appeal, filed by another resident, who also contested the non-opposition of the City of Chartres to the felling of chestnut trees, was rejected. His request was deemed inadmissible to the extent that Chartrain cannot “claim the status of immediate neighbor” of the real estate project, specifies the administrative court.
Chartres: around a hundred activists at the bedside of the three chestnut trees threatened with felling
Lawyers for local residents and the City of Chartres could not be reached this Thursday, November 2. The parties have three months to appeal the judgment.
“With this judgment, the developer does not have the right to cut down the chestnut trees,” says Patrick Chenevrel, president of the Association for the Defense of the Environment of the Chartres Agglomeration (ADEAC). “We must remain vigilant. The administrative court is giving it a chance to make regularizations. It seems illusory to be able to plant trees of the same importance as these century-old chestnut trees.”
Helene Bonnet
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