And off we go for a ride! The mayor of Paris is reshuffling the maps of the future Bercy-Charenton district (12th), voted by a very small majority in 2018. The development project for this site launched in 2008 through participatory workshops and other exploratory walks is very officially “Overhauled,” announces the municipality. A direct translation of the standoff between the executive and environmentalists before and during the last municipal elections. “It is a commitment made during the electoral campaign”, commented on the Town Hall.
No question for the team of Anne Hidalgo, the mayor (PS) of Paris, to concede any victory to the environmentalists. If we are to believe the City, it is rather the health crisis that has got the better of the project defended for years. “The project imagined by Rogers (Editor’s note: British architect Richard Rogers) was dated, imagined for more than ten years, ”explains one on the side of the Town Hall.
In the end, several lines of thought are being studied, “such as the place of revegetation through the creation of wood. The Covid crisis is pushing the municipality to re-examine how to build the city, in particular on the concrete implementation of the city of the quarter of an hour, the strong social impacts, but also the reflections on the office. This is the opportunity to design a neighborhood for the future. “
A “Bercy-Charenton citizens’ committee”, made up of 50 members, will have to redefine the objectives of the development project for this 80 hectare site. He will be recruited in the coming weeks by an independent polling institute. According to Liberation, this committee should be composed of 20 inhabitants of the 12th, six inhabitants of the 13th, 15 inhabitants of the other districts, six inhabitants of the neighboring town of Charenton-le-Pont and three of that of Ivry-sur- Seine, also on the edge of the project on the Val-de-Marne side.
Several thematic working sessions and site visits will be planned in order to fuel the discussions and allow an independent opinion from the citizens’ committee to be reached before the summer. Opinion which will only be advisory.
Opponents fear false consultation
A method that is already raising reservations on the side of the opposition and residents. “This new form of consultation leaves me quite skeptical. Already, during the citizens’ conference on the local urban plan, only insiders were aware that they had to pre-register to participate. And in addition, you had to take the city’s citizen card! I hope that the elected officials and associations of the district will be associated, ”sighs Valérie Montandon, elected (LR) of the 12th district.
“They will only involve in the consultation the associations and local residents who approve their project”, also fears Henri Hazael Massieux, president of the Friends of Bercy-Charenton association, a collective which has brought an action against the first development project .
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Beyond the method, it is the very framework of the consultation that raises questions. The mayor (PS) of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is clearly expected at the turn by her opposition and her environmental allies on a crucial subject: that of the towers.
Republicans call for a referendum
The initial project called for six towers, one of which is 180 meters, and the arrival of 9,000 new inhabitants as well as offices. “Discussions have made good progress on the idea of a green space in the ground but the problem remains on the issue of the height of buildings”, underlines Fatoumata Koné, leader of environmentalists at the Council of Paris. “On such a subject which deeply affects the physiognomy of Paris, the organization of a referendum among Parisians would make sense”, adds Valérie Montandon, elected (LR) of the 12th.
“And then, do we need to build as many more offices when we know that many square meters of offices are already empty in Paris? », Asks Fatoumata Koné. The right calls for the initial project to be “de-densified”. “The project defended so far by the Socialists is worthy of the 1960s! », Criticizes Valérie Montandon.
While waiting to redefine the main axes of this future ZAC, the City of Paris, in partnership with its developer, Semapa, SNCF Immobilier and Railways, is launching a call for “transitional urban planning” projects, on the provision of ‘a site in the future district of Bercy-Charenton. This project should thus make it possible to introduce the space to Parisians, but also to local residents so that they can appropriate the place.
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