Along the avenue Jean-Rondeaux in Rouen, the billboards on the future Flaubert eco-district are envy.
Modern buildings, green spaces, canal ... Everything is there.
300 meters from the next district, there is also the Lubrizol factory, classified Seveso, part of which was devastated by a violent fire last year.
The idea of building a district on this former industrial wasteland of 500,000 m² straddling the municipalities of Rouen and Petit-Quevilly was imagined twenty years ago to fight against urban sprawl.
Launched in 2011, the eco-district should notably accommodate 2,500 homes, 250,000 m² of offices, shops, a college, or even a nursery.
The Lubrizol fire and the 9,500 tonnes of chemicals that went up in smoke inevitably called into question the future of the project.
Read also: One year after Lubrizol, French chemicals are ready to modernize their sites
For a year, the eco-district has indeed become a subject of debate.
Should we abandon it?
To see him again at the margin?
Move it?
Technological risk is not new in the sector, however, and fears of an incident in the industrial zone are not new.
Already in 2016, the Environmental Agency (Ae) published a mixed report on the project, warning of the risk of an accident at the Lubrizol plant and asking the Rouen Metropolis, which oversees the project, to review the analysis of polluted soil and water.
The fire at the Seveso-listed factory last year may have had the merit of reminding us of the importance of this risk.
Despite these questions and doubts, there is no question for the Metropolis to abandon the project.
However, an informal moratorium has been in place for a year.
The change of municipality (but not of majority) in Rouen and office in the Metropolis this summer seems to give new life to the reflections.
A project to "rethink"
For Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, new mayor of Rouen and new president of the Metropolis (PS), it is clear that the eco-district cannot be designed as it was planned.
“
We have to rethink this project in a much more ecological and civic way,
” he says.
A citizen consultation is also launched this Friday, September 25 in Rouen to review the development of the different areas of the land.
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol imagines a buffer zone between the industrial-port zone and the eco-district.
“
Initially, the planned developments were too close to the industrial zone.
What we are proposing is that a whole part near the industrial zone be made a sanctuary in the form of an urban forest
, ”he says.
Same story among environmental activists.
Guillaume Blavette, secretary of the Normandy section of France Nature Environnement, says it clearly: “
This town planning project must be adapted to the two major risks: the technological risk and the risk of flooding.
[...] After the accident Lubrizol, one can see the facilities but the opportunity remains and is not canceled
. "
He also underlines the importance of this project to limit deforestation on the outskirts of the city.
“
The real problem in Rouen is urban sprawl.
If we want to save the natural and agricultural spaces around, we have to rebuild in the city.
[...] The initial project as it was imagined ten years ago will not necessarily be carried out, it will not necessarily be an eco-district, but it is a beautiful operation with a real concern to redensify the city
”.
Guillaume Blavette nonetheless recalls that "
it is the duty of every industrialist to reduce the risk at the source [...] and of Lubrizol's responsibility to protect his company
".
It is indisputable that real estate developers will have to adapt to the redesign of the project.
One of them, Odyssée Immobilier, has already reworked its building permit.
"
We added specific glazing to the buildings on the west side
(side of the factories, Editor's note)
in the event of a recurrence and we provided for autonomous ventilation because at the time of the fire, all the VMCs absorbed the particles and we could not not cut them remotely.
Reinforced concrete areas and a containment area have also been planned
, ”explains Lucie Carton, project manager at Odyssée Immobilier.
The company also plans to do training with the buyers of the project so that they know how to react in the event of an incident.
The upheaval caused by the fire in Lubrizol, to which confinement was added, caused a considerable delay in the start of work and the delivery of the first batches. While Odyssée Immobilier was to supply its first buildings in the fourth quarter of 2021, Lucie Carton estimates that they cannot be delivered before the third quarter of 2022. Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol is imagining a construction for 2023. Despite everything, the buyers of the project have not given up on settling there. “
We contacted the potential buyers and they all confirmed that they were maintaining the project,
” concludes Lucie Carton.