Zero Net Artificialisation: Municipalities in Roannais Agglomeration Practice Land Sobriety to Reduce Urban Sprawl

Gone is the multiplication of housing estates where dozens of houses touch each other, with a few square meters of land in front. The municipalities will have to practice land sobriety with the ZAN (zero net artificialisation). The aim is to reduce the use of agricultural and forest land by 50% by 2030. No more building on this still virgin land.

“We are brutally imposed on us a sobriety of land”, recognizes Hervé Daval, mayor of Saint-Vincent-de-Boisset and president of the new Scot (territorial coherence scheme) of Roannais.

Reduce land take by 50% in the region

This Scot set up in January 2022 brings together five intermunicipalities: Roannais Agglomeration, Pays d’Urfé, Vals d’Aix and Isable, Pays between Loire and Rhône and Charlieu-Belmont Community. It covers almost all of the arrondissement of Roanne. “We will now have to have a global vision of land use planning, with a common urbanization strategy and pooling of equipment across the Scot”, emphasizes Hervé Daval.

If the law sets the framework, it is the Regions that define the planning policy with the Regional plan for planning and sustainable development and territorial equality (Sraddet). To comply with the law, the regional scheme will be voted on before August 2024.

According to Hervé Daval, the President of the Region, Laurent Wauquiez, asked the 52 Scots of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to reduce the artificialization by 50%.

Consequence: on the Scot du Roannais, the area to be urbanized over the next ten years will amount to only 313 hectares. “On Roannais Agglomeration alone, 700 hectares have been urbanized and, in the future, we will only have 313 hectares left over five intermunicipalities. Discussions within the Scot will be strong to find out how we are going to use these 313 hectares, ”warns Hervé Daval.

Densify urbanized areas

Paradoxically, in the municipalities, it is the already urbanized areas that can be densified. Thus, on a large plot on which a house is already established, it could be divided to receive other dwellings. In towns, wasteland can be rehabilitated to build collective housing.

“Of course, we can no longer do as before. We can no longer build housing estates everywhere, the elected officials are well aware of this, ”insists the president of Scot du Roannais.