Home » News » Controversial Decision to Transfer Park for Social Housing and Health Center Sparks Outcry in Livry-Gargan

Controversial Decision to Transfer Park for Social Housing and Health Center Sparks Outcry in Livry-Gargan

It was during the municipal council of June 8 that the transfer of a plot of 4,447 square meters occupied by the Georges Clemenceau park was voted to create 74 social housing units and a health center. At the rate of 34 votes against 7, the elected representatives of Livry voted to transfer the plot to the company Telamon Development for an amount of 1,603,000 euros, as well as its downgrading from the public domain.

The association calls for public consultation

For Gilles Mijouin, vice-president of Livry Participatif, an association created in November 2022 by resigning district councilors (see link to the article below), the decision does not pass. “On the one hand, the municipality tells us that we are going to try to be greener with a PLUI [plan local d’urbanisme intercommunal] which provides for an ecological corridor. On the other, we are suddenly told that we are going to destroy a park!

Read: In Livry-Gargan, resigning neighborhood councilors create an Observatory of Participatory Democracy

We did not ask the opinion of the inhabitants. However, all the residents of the park that we met are in shock“, believes for his part Roman Brugeat, president of the association.

Biodiversity

Both denounce a blow to the quality of life of the inhabitants, recalling that in 2015, the prefect considered that the local urban plan, declaring this building plot, was not coherent in this sector. According to them, the project will also have consequences for biodiversity by endangering the 37 trees of the park and by breaking over several hundred meters the ecological corridor linking the Bondy forest to the Parc de la Poudrerie.

The association, whose petition against the project has collected 238 signatures to date, also points to the symbolic charge of the removal of this park. “These are the remains of the old castle of Livry and according to our research, this space has been either natural or semi-natural for 2,000 years.“, emphasizes Roman Brugeat. “We ask that the city be transparent about the ins and outs of this project and that a real public debate be organized“, he hammers.

Is a health center near the municipal health center needed?

For Roman Brugeat, the health center project is also “incomprehensible“, given the proximity of the future municipal health center (CMS). “This plot, which was in the public domain, is sold to a private player to create a medical offer for sector 2 professionals [ndlr, les médecins fixent librement leurs tarifs et peuvent donc pratiquer les dépassements d’honoraires.]”

These questions were raised by opposition elected officials during the June 8 municipal council. “Putting a health center that offers what there is no longer at the CMS because we can no longer find specialist doctors, isn’t that making this structure collapse?“, worried Françoise Bitatsi-Trachet (Left Front). “Is there an environmental impact study? Has there been an analysis of medical needs in a location with poor transport? had questioned Marie-Laure Hodé (PS).

Green spaces also reinforced

You can’t accuse me of destroying green spaces when I’m going to multiply them“, defends himself for his part Pierre-Yves Martin, the mayor (LR) of Livry-Gargan, who highlights the preservation of 1,000 square meters of vegetated space on the plot. “We have more than 80 hectares of green spaces in Livry-Gargan. In the Parc Georges Clemenceau sector, which is not really a park, the Parc Georges Pompidou has, for example, more than 5 hectares. We are going to strengthen our green spaces with the PLUI de Grand Paris Grand Est*, so that there are some in every district of the city..”

For the city councilor, this space is, moreover, very little frequented “because there was no place to walk, no bench or playground for children for some time.” He recalls that the plot has been classified as constructible in the PLU since 2015. “This is the only plot in this case.”

A territory of medical desertification

The objective is to create a new health center to be able to continue to treat in an area like Livry-Gargan and Seine-Saint-Denis, where we are in the midst of medical desertification.” This place would allowto set up consulting rooms for general practitioners and specialists, nurses, physiotherapists, a primary care center, a medical imaging center and a medical analysis laboratory“, describes Pierre-Yves Martin. This health center must be set up through a partnership between the Le Raincy-Montfermeil intermunicipal hospital group and the private group Ramsay.

The residency will be intended primarily for health professionals.because we know the housing difficulties they encounter“. These 74 social housing units will also enable the city to better comply with the SRU law (solidarity and urban renewal) which obliges municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants to have 25% social housing. However, the city currently only has 22.5%.

*The Grand Paris Grand Est territorial public establishment brings together the 14 cities of Seine-Saint-Denis: Clichy-sous-Bois, Coubron, Gagny, Gournay-sur-Marne, Raincy, Pavillons-sous-Bois, Livry-Gargan , Montfermeil, Neuilly-Plaisance, Neuilly-sur-Marne, Noisy-le-Grand, Rosny-sous-Bois, Vaujours and Villemomble.

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