Pallets and other more or less DIY installations of the “Covid terraces” are still in place.
But they have not welcomed any customers for two months now.
And the date of January 20, a time mentioned for the reopening of cafes, restaurants and some 8,000 ephemeral terraces authorized by the mayor of Paris until next June, is no longer relevant.
However, this lingering crisis situation does not prevent the representatives of Parisian residents from reopening “preventively” the very controversial issue of rights to terraces and occupation of the public domain.
The Vivre Paris network!
- which brings together around twenty local associations spread over almost all of the arrondissements - has just announced its intention to summon the mayor of Paris before the administrative court.
Objective: to have the courts recognize the “shortcomings” of the City in terms of management and control of the use of public space by cafetiers and restaurateurs who have terrace rights.
The procedure will focus, as a priority, on the drifts (extensions that are too large, noise pollution, closures too late, etc.) observed around the temporary installations linked to the health crisis.
A little-respected municipal by-law
"They were granted, free of charge, without any legal basis ... and without subsequent controls", remind residents' representatives who have observed an explosion in complaints from neighbors of "covid terraces" between June and October.
“But our approach is not limited to ephemeral terraces.
It aims, more generally, to demonstrate that the town hall is not succeeding in enforcing the municipal regulation of terraces and displays which it adopted in 2011, ”insists Gilles Pourbaix, president of the Vivre Paris! Network.
An audit on terrace rights carried out in the summer of 2016 by the General Inspectorate of the City of Paris showed that more than three out of four establishments did not comply with the complex but very precise municipal regulations.
“Unfortunately, things have not changed much since,” deplore the residents' representatives.
"We are not going to wait for the resumption of excesses to act"
Their lawyer is finalizing his case, consisting of several dozen cases (some very old) of "non-regulatory" but not sanctioned terraces.
It should be sent to the City of Paris by the end of January.
Without a response from the town hall within two months, the request will then be sent to the administrative court.
An approach that will take place at the worst time for coffee makers and restaurateurs in the turmoil?
Gilles Pourbaix denies it.
“We are well aware of the current difficulties of professionals.
But we will not wait for the reopening of the terraces ... and the resumption of excesses to act, ”indicates the activist associations, specifying that the launch of the legal procedure in the midst of a health crisis owes nothing to chance.
It will intervene upstream of the revision and complete overhaul of the 2011 terraces regulations that the mayor of Paris will examine next summer.
The future regulation - a very technical document which fixes "to the nearest centimeter" the size of the terraces and their operating conditions - could transform, under certain conditions, certain temporary authorizations granted in the emergency after deconfinement into permanent devices.
Professionals already under pressure
Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor of Paris, had hinted at it last summer, stressing that the future regulations would “take note of a number of things” first put in place on a provisional basis.
"Olivia Polski
(Editor's note: the assistant in charge of trade, who did not respond to our requests)
and her services are working on several avenues in this direction", confirms Marcel Benezet, president of the coffee-bars-breweries branch at within the professional organization GNI-Synhorcat, referring in particular to the optimization of parking spaces ... of which the town hall wishes to reduce the number by half.
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Not enough to reassure the associations of residents, who fear a generalization of the "excesses" observed during the installation of ephemeral terraces.
"It is true that at the time, some professionals did anything ... and that the town hall sanctioned very little those who did not respect the charter", recognizes Marcel Benezet.
“But these exceptional arrangements had been taken in a hurry.
Those which will be included in the future regulation of terraces will be much more strictly supervised, ”reassures the representative of professionals“ in agony
”.
And to conclude, addressed to residents who have complained about noise pollution caused by the extensions of terraces: “Since the start of the health crisis, those who no longer sleep at night are the owners of the establishment… Not their neighbors!
"